Our Mission
Glimmers Childhood Cancer Foundation is a grassroots non-profit that funds cutting edge research for pediatric cancer and serves kids, adolescents and young adults living with cancer (and their families), receiving treatment at UCLA Mattel Children’s Hospitals in Los Angeles, as well as inspires awareness, advocacy and education.
Our Why
When our founder, 11-year-old, Ava Decker was diagnosed with Osteosarcoma, a rare bone cancer, in December 2022, her family’s world shattered. Although they found excellent medical care from the Pediatric Sarcoma Center at UCLA Mattel Children’s Hospitals in Los Angeles, treatments were brutal, they quickly learned a terrifying truth:
Ava was receiving the same treatment for her cancer that was created over 50 years ago simply because there hasn’t been progress due to a major lack of funding to discover less toxic and more effective treatments. Despite aggressive surgery and highly toxic chemotherapy, the cancer spread throughout her body, and Ava died at the age of 13-years-old, on Thursday, May 9, 2024.
While adult cancer treatments have seen stunning advancements, children’s cancer treatments have not and are severely underfunded, especially less common cancers such as sarcomas. Although pediatric cancer is the leading cause of death by disease in children and teens in the United States, yet only 4% of the federal cancer research funding is for pediatric cancer.
Each day approximately 47 children are diagnosed with cancer in the U.S., which means more than 17,000 children in the U.S. are diagnosed each year, resulting in the death of approximately 1,800 deaths each year. Even scarier? That number is increasing each year.
Pediatric cancer research needs to catch up, and fast.
Our kids deserve investing in treatments developed by cutting-edge research.
Together, we can do better.
Our Vision
The vision for Glimmers Childhood Cancer Foundation (Glimmers Foundation) was created by our founder, 13-year-old Ava Decker, during her journey with osteosarcoma, a bone cancer, at UCLA Mattel Children’s Hospitals in Los Angeles from 2022 to 2024. The mission crystallized when her cancer metastasized and was declared incurable.
Ava dove deep into her experience, oftentimes in the depths of her darkest moments, and unearthed wisdom from the suffering that she would apply toward the creation of Glimmers Foundation with the spirit of compassion, intention, and meaningful impact.
Because Ava was courageous enough to be present to all aspects of her experience—the brutal moments and the glimmers—she called upon her mom, Vanessa, to create a plan of action guided by a powerful mission statement and a funding strategy built upon the utmost integrity. Ava’s vision for the foundation's funding was rooted in a commitment to make every donated dollar work aggressively funding cutting-edge research toward the discovery of less toxic and more effective treatments for pediatric cancer.
And she didn’t stop there.
The vision for Support Programs is to offer meaningful psychosocial support to children, adolescents, and young adults living with cancer (and their families) through community partnerships, donated goods and services, volunteerism, and personal connection.
Ava also understood that a foundation built on integrity and purpose would have an immense impact on the progress of pediatric cancer treatment.
Our Funding Strategy
Our founder, 13-year-old, Ava Decker envisioned a simple, yet powerful funding strategy grounded in simplicity, integrity, and high impact: Every donated dollar goes directly to funding cutting edge pediatric cancer research. Our Support Programs rely on donation of goods and services, in-kind donations, community partnerships, volunteerism, grants, and underwriting.
Read more to discover how Ava developed this funding approach.
After enduring several weeks of harsh chemotherapy at just 11 years old, Ava was shocked to learn that she was receiving the same outdated and toxic treatment developed over 50 years ago. This lack of progress, largely due to inadequate funding and research, meant her highly toxic treatment offered only the possibility of a cure. She also discovered that those who did recover from their cancer often dealt with severe secondary health issues (due to the toxicity of the treatments) which sometimes resulted in developing a secondary cancer. Even though pediatric cancer is the leading cause of death by disease in kids and teens in the U.S., federal funding for research is a mere 4%, spread thin across various types of pediatric cancers.
When she discovered this, Ava was outraged.
She knew she deserved better, and she understood the magnitude of the suffering endured by all the children who have died and will continue to do so because we’ve failed to prioritize progress in pediatric cancer treatment. This is why Ava wanted every. donated. dollar. from her legacy, Glimmers Childhood Cancer Foundation, to go toward innovative research aimed at discovering more effective and less toxic treatments for pediatric cancer.
Growing up, Ava witnessed her mother’s commitment to non-profit work, which ranged from volunteering to leading boards and serving as a consultant. On several occasions, Ava watched her mom rally community support for high-impact initiatives, fundraising events, and assisting families in need (some of them coincidentally for childhood cancer non-profits). Ava also saw her mom serve on boards, cultivate donor relations, and assist with both start-up and established non-profits.
She told her mom, “You will carry out this foundation. We can’t get quality research donated or volunteered so every dollar will go towards research because we need a cure. You will work with the community to offer meaningful social-emotional support. Everyone can help do something to make the kids and their families feel cared for.”
Ava’s right: Everyone can help do something to help.
All financial donations will be processed through a 501(c)(3) non-profit and are tax deductible (you will receive a confirmation letter for your records).