Unfortunately, one of the realities of many childhood cancers is that after an initial relapse, the clinically proven treatment options are essentially nonexistent. Such was the case with Megan after her second relapse. Fortunately, she responded to some experimental treatments that successfully prolonged her life, but after her fourth relapse, there were no treatment options left. As far too many childhood cancer patients have experienced, she had that fateful final meeting with her pediatric radiologist when he told her that her MRI showed that the cancer near her brain was expanding and there was nothing more he could do to help her. The look on Megan’s face was heartbreaking, because absent chemotherapy options, radiation was her only hope. Sadly, this is the reality for far too many pediatric cancer patients who experience multiple relapses.

In typical Megan fashion, she didn’t spend much time feeling sorry for herself, but instead set about finding another treatment option that might work for her. She knew that immunotherapy treatments had started showing some success with certain forms of adult cancers, so she reached out to her medical team to see if it would work for her. Even though some initial research studies showed that such treatments had not been effective on RMS, Megan always believed in her body and wanted to give it a try. Unfortunately, due to the lack of success with immunotherapy in previous studies, Megan could not get approval to undergo this treatment. She was obviously upset, but once again, instead of just getting angry and giving in, she immediately contacted Dr. Keller at the Children's Cancer Therapy Development Institute with a new challenge. She wanted him to find a way to make immunotherapy a viable treatment option for relapsed RMS kids, and she wanted him to start the research now. As usual, she told him not to worry about the money because she would find a way to financially support the research. This resulted in Megan raising $𝟏𝟑𝟑,𝟗𝟒𝟖 to fully fund the preclinical trials on immunotherapy with RMS.

Megan’s funding of this project allowed cc-TDI to hire another full-time researcher devoted to this immunotherapy project. Victoria Allanson (pictured) has been working diligently on this study, and once again, if successful, this would be another game changer for treating RMS. Immunotherapy has proven to be much less toxic to the body than chemotherapy (although not without side effects), which could not only improve treatment outcomes, but also lessen the risk of secondary cancers so often caused by chemotherapy treatments.

Through the support of the Megan’s Mission Foundation, we are continuing Megan’s dream of finding an end to childhood cancer. Our successes are starting to come quickly, but there is still so much work to be done to realize Megan’s vision. Please consider a tax deductible donation at