Answer to Cancer event helps nonprofit reach $1 million goal

This year, Open Hands Overflowing Hearts wanted to donate $1 million to pediatric cancer research. After its end-of-the-year event on Sunday, the organization finally reached that goal.

More than 500 people showed up for the second annual Answer to Cancer fundraiser at Regions Field in downtown Birmingham Sunday, organizers said. They're still tallying the numbers, but the event pushed total donations for the year over the $1 million mark, they said.

Open Hands Overflowing Hearts (OHOH) was started in September 2014 by Hoover resident Kayla Perry, who was diagnosed with pediatric cancer in 2013 at age 18.

Perry, now a 20-year-old student at Auburn University, said about 300 people pre-ordered tickets to Sunday's event, and she was pleased with how the community always comes out to show support.

“Even if we have 100 people here, it’s going to be great,” Perry said.

The Answer to Cancer event included a silent auction, live music, kids' zone, live auction and several speakers. Perry said she didn’t expect everyone in attendance to have prior knowledge about her organization. Some could have come because they heard about “a cool event going on downtown,” she said, but she hopes everyone left with a good understanding.

During the main program, two parents discussed their experience with pediatric cancer. They both emphasized the importance of funding and the difficulty of losing a child to cancer.

“Our experience had always been that sick kids got better. We always thought that would be the case; that’s a reasonable expectation of life,” said Mark Myers, whose youngest daughter, Kylie, died on Feb. 13 after a 10-month battle with cancer. “Only it isn’t true. My experience has changed.”

Myers said one of the hardest things about Kylie’s treatment and battle was the lack of answers.

“The chemotherapy regimen that Kylie was given was roughly the same treatment that I would have been given, had I gotten the same cancer when I was a boy,” Myers said. “You heard that right — I’m 48 years old, and little has changed in the ways we treat childhood cancer.”

Myers said he hopes for safer and more effective treatments for childhood cancers. The only way that can happen, he said, is to bring awareness to the lack of funding and to rally around the cause.

“I want ordinary, non-VIP people like you and I to stand up and do what’s right,” Myers said. “Together with organizations like Open Hands Overflowing Hearts, we can change the world, and I hope you’ll join me.”

Scott Ortis, a Mountain Brook resident whose 16-year-old son, Sid Ortis, died Oct. 31 after a 15-month battle with cancer, discussed just how much cancer changes a family’s life. It is not limited to the person battling cancer, he said, but is a constant invasion of normal life.

“It alters your life, it alters everything you do with your life,” he said. "To lose a child is an unimaginable thing. It’s worse than you could imagine, actually.”

As Sid fought his fight, Ortis said Sid had accepted the possibility he could die. But really, Ortis said he never thought Sid would actually die.

“The drugs to use and the opportunities out there are just very minimal,” he said. “They haven’t changed in forever.”

Dr. Stuart Cramer, a pediatric oncologist at Children’s of Alabama, said as an oncologist, it’s difficult to not be able to give families the answer they want.

“When we walk in the room and we make that statement, that your child has cancer, that bond automatically starts,” Cramer said, “and that family grows very attached to what you project and what you think is best for their child.”

While he did not initially diagnose Perry, Cramer has worked with her during most of her treatment. At this point, he said they are working on a game plan but there is no definitive solution.

“It’s kind of pulling things out of thin air and trying something new, and that’s kind of where we are in the world of pediatric cancer,” Cramer said. “It’s sad, but as much as it hurts the family, it hurts us as well because when we walk in that room and we know that scan, we know there’s nothing else to offer. And that’s very disappointing.”

Perry closed out the program by thanking those in attendance for helping OHOH meet its goal as well as thanking members of the OHOH executive and junior boards.

For more information about Open Hands Overflowing Hearts, visit ohoh.org.