Why is this such an important event? It is important because Preston has been afflicted with a rare form of cancer and may not live to attend with his graduating class this year.

Preston was diagnosed on Christmas Day 2015, at age 10, with a rare form of cancer called Desmoplastic Small Round Cell Tumor (DSRCT). This cancer is so rare that only 200 cases a year come to light. To date, he has received 54 rounds of different IV Chemotherapies and 45 sessions of radiation in his abdominal area, where the bulk of his tumors reside. His bone cancer is in his wing and clavicle bones, forehead, spine and lungs.

He was subjected to one clinical trial in New York at MSKCC in 2017 and another clinical trial in New York in September 2021, but the cancer was so widely spread throughout his body, the doctors told his parents that he had only weeks or possibly months to live.

His cancer-riddled body has endured nine surgeries and the cancer returned six times. He is no quitter, and he has fought this menace tooth and toenail, like all those other beautiful children fighting this horrible disease. It is terminal and non-curable.

When he returned from New York this past September, he was on maintenance chemo and his mother was advised in January of this year that it had stopped working. Never giving up, his parents tried every known method to keep him stable enough to start a new clinical trial, called Elimusertib, on the 17th of this month – a procedure approved for DSRCT at Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles.

After admission to Children’s Hospital, his body was just too wracked with pain to endure any more treatments. His mother, Michelle says, “Doctors told us there was nothing else they could do for him and that any further treatment would do more harm than help.”

Given the option of remaining in the hospital or coming home, he chose the latter.

“I want to live the rest of my life at home, with my family and friends. On Friday, March 11th, Preston, probably for the last time, came home to await the obvious because that’s where he wants to be.

I’ve done some serious research and I was shocked, as you might also be, to learn that childhood cancer only consumes 4% of research funding; 96% goes to adults. Meanwhile, children with this terrible blight in their bodies are robbed of more than 70% of their lives.

Preston’s mother says, “There is so much red tape in getting treatment; it is amazing that these children live as long as they do.

As a journalist, I’ve covered some genuinely gruesome stories, but I found myself on the verge of a full-blown bawling session when I met Preston. If this story doesn’t pull at your heartstrings, then your heart is out of tune.

Just sayin’ rustystrait@gmail.com

Rusty Strait | Senior Reporter

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