ROCHESTER, N.Y. – Neary a thousand children across New York State are diagnosed with Cancer every year. Hundreds of families in our region are dealing with that reality right now. September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month and one community leader is doing everything he can to honor kids who are fighting or who have fought this terrible disease.
Most people are used to seeing Monroe County Undersheriff Korey Brown in full uniform helping to lead a team of hundreds of deputies who protect our community. But a few years ago, the person Brown most wanted to protect was his Grandson Joel who was diagnosed with a neuroblastoma.
“From the chemo and treatment of that, a year later he got secondary leukemia so twice, two years in a row, he was in this hospital fighting cancer and really fighting for his life,” Brown recalls, “at one point he had a 40% chance of survival and looking at him, we didn’t think it was that good but god does wonderful things.”
While Joel is now cancer-free, the three other children who were in the hospital at the same time fighting cancer didn’t make it. “All those other families, you think about how they’re struggling. The hardest thing I’ve ever done was go to the wake of a 5 year-old,” Brown says.
That’s why each day of September, Brown runs a 5k in honor or memory of a different young cancer fighter from our community.
This week, he got to run one of those 5ks with the boy he was honoring, 11-year-old JJ Rothfuss.
“I think what he does is very special,” JJ says.
Just a few years ago, JJ’s mom Amber Walker wasn’t sure any of his favorite activities like baseball, football and basketball would ever be possible. “He was diagnosed with AML which is a very aggressive form of leukemia,” Walker says, “he ended up with basically every bug, strep, walking pneumonia, all that because he had no immune system by that point.”
JJ spent 6 months straight at Golisano Children’s Hospital receiving treatment. He’s now been cancer-free for 4 years. “There’s still a lot of families fighting, there’s a lot of families that don’t get what we got in getting him back so it always helps us to remember,” Walker says.
And so, JJ and Amber ran alongside Undersheriff Brown to bring awareness to the local kids and families currently in the fight.
Undersheriff Brown has been doing a “5K a day” for Childhood Cancer awareness month for the past 5 years. The effort has raised more than $50,000 for the C.U.R.E. Childhood Cancer Association. C.U.R.E. provides family support and meetings, they help parents pay for parking and meals at the hospital. They’ll even help families dealing with childhood cancer by babysitting siblings or mowing lawns.
For more information about C.U.R.E.: Click Here
For more information about Undersheriff Brown’s Fundraiser: Click Here
‘God does wonderful things’: Undersheriff Korey Brown shares grandson’s cancer survival story, runs to raise awareness WHEC.com.
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