Welcome to Team Chickaroo! What in the world is a Chickaroo?   Why a Team, you ask? Well, Chickaroo is the nick-name of our beautiful, vivacious, and bright 7 year old daughter, Caroline.  What started as an affectionate moniker officially became Team Chickaroo on April 26, 2007, when we learned that Caroline had an inoperable, incurable, plum sized tumor lodged deep within her brain, more particularly in the optic chiasm/hypothalamic region.

Caroline knows that although she is the one with living with the brain tumor (a “silly thing in [her] head”); she is not fighting her battle alone.  Her parents, brothers, extended family and friends are whole-heartedly supporting her as a team, Team Chickaroo. “Chickaroos are brave. Chickaroos are strong.  Chickaroos are tough. Chickaroos are winners.””

Brain tumors are the number one cause of cancer death in children and the number two overall cause of childhood death after accidents. While significant strides have been made in many forms of childhood cancer, pediatric brain tumors have all but been neglected. Caroline has a tumor known as a Low Grade Astrocytoma (LGA). It is inoperable and presently incurable. The treatment options for LGA’s have not changed for over 25 years, typically a combination of surgery, chemotherapy and radiation. Whether stand alone or in combination, all of these options would have significant impact on anyone let alone a child with a developing brain. This is unacceptable to us.

On May 7, 2007, less than 2 weeks after Caroline’s diagnosis, the Pediatric Low-Grade Astrocytoma Program at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute was announced. The new concentration of research on pediatric low-grade brain tumors at Dana-Farber is believed to be the first coordinated research effort committed to this specific type of tumor. Scientists from a range of specialties will focus on clinical and basic aspects of the problem, with a five-year goal of identifying a molecular target in LGA’s that can be hit with a designer drug.

Funding this program and other endeavors has come down to the efforts of families and friends of LGA patients. We cannot stand on the sidelines; we must be involved in the fight against PLGA.  We need to find a cure for Caroline, and we are dedicated and believe that this will happen.  Until then, we hope for kinder and more effective treatment.  We have started this web-site in order to advance our endeavor to raise awareness and of course, critical funds.

We hope you will join Team Chickaroo and become part of our campaign. Please save this site to your favorites, forward it to your friends and check in often.  We have some truly exciting things being planned!  In the meantime, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts, and remain so appreciative of your love, prayers and support. 

Rick and Sarah

To subscribe to receive regular medical updates about Caroline and leave her messages of support, please log onto www.carepage.com and register as a user. You will need to enter the case sensitive patient name, which is: TeamChickaroo.