In Loving Memory of Joel Green – AT/RT

In January of 2010, Joel Green was diagnosed with AT/RT, at 1 year old. AT/RT is an extremely aggressive brain tumor. Joel underwent 54 weeks of treatments – a combo of surgery to remove the tumor, the most aggressive chemo drugs, and radiation therapy. Only 9 months old later, Joel relapsed, the tumor was back.
Despite having radiation 6 days a week for 6 weeks, the tumor still came back.
3 months before Joel would turn 2 years old, he was given between 2 weeks to 4 months to live. He lived 27 months after that (2 years and 3 months), during that time he had 5 more relapses. Once again, Joel’s family were told he wouldn’t live for long. At the very end, Joel had 7 tumors in total.

In January of 2014, Joel’s family decided to travel to San Francisco and try a trial drug to treat AT/RT… Only 2 months after it was clear the trial was not working at all. There were no more options. Joel died a few days after coming back home, in Colorado… He was 5 years old. Joel was surrounded by immense love and peacefully passed away on March 13th, 2014… Joel had a giggle that could light up an entire room and the will to live of a million people. We miss you, baby! ( January 12th, 2009 – March 13th, 2014 )

Joel’s dad created a videogame: That Dragon, Cancer. It shows the player what it feels like to have a child fighting childhood cancer. I’ve played it myself; it’s heartbreaking.
This is the cruelty of cancer: Joel only knew Cancer during his life. For 90% of his short life. Not fair.