Friends & Family - 

The Rogers are again embarking on a fundraising effort in memory of our friends Adam and Amanda Petrzelka's son, Owen.

Until April 2020, Owen was a typical (and totally awesome) five year old.  He loved kindergarten, ninjas, his scooter and Legos.  As a proud brother, he taught his little sister the importance of support walls with forts and helped calm his little brother by hand holding and singing lullabies. After some unusual behavior, like falling downstairs and walking into walls, a MRI showed a tumor in his brain stem and cerebellum, which was confirmed to be diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG).  

Found in the brainstem and most often affecting children between ages 4 and 11, DIPG robs children of their ability to walk, talk, eat, and breathe while leaving their minds fully intact. It has been an inoperable, mostly fatal brain tumor with no FDA-approved treatments. Even today, the median survival remains less than one year, and the five-year survival rate is less than 1%.

Owen fought bravely but sadly lost his battle against DIPG in October 2020  - we run in his honor and memory.

Adam is a great friend and co-worker of Pete’s. They have organized this run to simply raise awareness for research around DIPG and give families more hope.  

In August this year, the FDA  granted approval to Modeyso for the treatment of recurrent DIPG. This marks the first-ever approved therapy for this devastating disease, offering real hope to families, like the Petrzelkas, who have been told for generations, "There's nothing we can do."

For decades, a diagnosis of DIPG meant only one thing: heartbreak. Now, thanks in large part to the early and ongoing support of TeamOwen and the ChadTough Defeat DIPG Foundation , patients will now have access to an FDA-approved drug.  To date, the foundation has invested nearly $6 million in  Modeyso-related efforts. 
All donations will be given to the ChadTough Defeat DIPG Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.  ChadTough's mission is to inspire and fund game-changing research to discover effective treatments for pediatric brain cancer, with an emphasis on Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG). 

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

#owenstrong

Love,
Pete, Cara, Matthew, Patrick, and Peter 

To learn more about ChadTough Defeat DIPG Foundation, go to www.chadtough.org.