Our story

In the 1980s, Neuroblastoma was a death sentence for children. Because of innovative research, today 75% of children diagnosed with Neuroblastoma walk away to live happy, long lives. Our sassy, brazen, whip-crack smart Daniel with a baby’s voice was the 25%. He was diagnosed at 3 years old.

Normal therapy, aka ‘Frontline Protocol’ quickly proved inadequate. More tumors were growing. Hope was spiraling. This is when CHLA’s, Dr. Marachelian grabbed the wheel of his care. She melded her creativity, oncology brilliance and motherly scrutiny to ensure Daniel’s quality of life was paramount while she fought the tumors with remission as her goal. Although his life was short, it was also full of joy because Dr. Araz Marachelian enrolled Daniel in multiple NANT trials which reduced and slowed the tumors. In result, these pioneering trials allowed Daniel to love being a little boy again with all of the silliness and adventures of childhood.

Enabling our family to have three more precious years with our mini Captain America is a gift we can never repay to her. But we’re going to try. With donations facilitating more research, hopefully future children with stubborn tumors like Daniel’s will join the 75% and push it to 100%.

This will be Daniel’s legacy. We chose to funnel all donations in Daniel's name to New Approaches to Neuroblastoma Therapy (WWW.NANT.ORG) via Daniel's page because the proceeds will specifically fund the ground-breaking research to help children with Neuroblastoma reach remission for good.