Press Feature: KEYT News
13-Year Old Ava Decker Launches Special Foundation for Kids With Cancer While Facing Her Own Challenge
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – Ava Decker just turned 13 years old in Santa Barbara and her life is uniquely focused towards other kids who are facing a battle with cancer, just like she is. Her case was diagnosed in December of 2022.
The bone cancer, osteosarcoma, is rare and is detected in children during their growing years. She’s had chemotherapy treatments, and a tumor removed at the UCLA medical centers in Santa Monica and Westwood. The cancer, however, has spread.
At home, bundled up in a blanket, she said her goal is to raise funds to help other children with cancer and to assist their families. She and her family have started a non-profit called the Glimmers Childhood Cancer foundation.
Living with cancer, getting treatments and learning about the disease has her using the limited strength she has these days, to strongly bring up the issue she sees where federal funds for childhood cancer treatment amounts to only 4%.
The Glimmers Foundation website said Ava wants donations "that would shine glimmers of hope and support, built on the utmost integrity by directly funneling funding for cutting edge research for pediatric cancer with the goal to make bold progress on creating less toxic and more effective treatments."
She said the funds will help families with children challenged by cancer and spread awareness and education.
Decker said the treatments she has received were developed decades ago and new types of research, specifically for children with bone cancer are needed and are less painful.
With her mother Vanessa by her side, Ava said, "I don't want to have a foundation that's just there to help support getting these treatments, we need to have a foundation to raise funding to create new treatments, so that we aren't supporting these old treatments that are bad anyways and aren't even working that well. We need treatments that are working better because we haven't had any new or much progress in osteosarcoma or in childhood cancer in the last 50 years."
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