Group raises money for research to fight childhood cancer

SAVANNAH, Ga. (WTOC) - It’s a tough but important topic to discuss: childhood cancer.

According to the National Pediatric Cancer Foundation, 43 kids in the U.S. are expected to be diagnosed with cancer each day.

Only 4 percent of the billions of dollars the government spends on cancer research goes to treating childhood cancer said Jenny Wilkins, the Special Events Manager of CURE Childhood Cancer.

That’s where fundraisers like Catie’s Gathering come in.

It’s a special dinner named after Catie, Wilkins’s daughter who died of childhood cancer.

Now, every year survivors and parents rally together to honor the children battling cancer, all with one goal which is to raise funds to find a Cure.

Wilkins said Catie was a little mischievous and liked to pull pranks on her father.

She said life will never feel the same as it did 16 years ago before she lost her first-born daughter Catie who was just four years old.

She added that everything that’s sweet in life for most people is always bittersweet for her because Catie isn’t there.

“We always wonder how life would be if she had survived.”

She hopes no other family goes through the pain she and her family felt. That is why she supports research for new treatments.

“We have two amazing kids now, even though they never met her they grieved not knowing her in their own way. They were robbed of that because the research was not there. The newest medicine she got was 25 years old and the oldest medicine she got was more than 50 years old and that is not okay,” said Wilkins.

She said the event is Catie’s legacy and they aren’t going to let cancer win.

“We were determined that it wasn’t going to beat us, we will miss her every day but it’s not going to win,” said Wilkins.

To date, Catie’s Fund has raised more than $2.8 million dollars. To find out how you can help the cause you can visit https://curechildhoodcancer.org/caties-gathering/.

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