Monday, July 13, 2009

In The Cage 4 Cancer

Inthecage4cancer is a group of mixed martial artists/cagefighters who have made it their commitment to bring attention to children's cancer and somehow fight cancer from the cage, one fight at a time!

Chico Santiago is the brains, brawn, heart and soul behind inthecage4cancer, but his beautiful son, Diego is the inspiration. Diego lost his courageous battle with a cancer known as Wilms' tumor three years ago. Diego was only 6 years old.
Wilms' tumor is a rare kidney cancer that primarily affects children. Also known as nephroblastoma, it's the most common malignant tumor of the kidneys in children. The peak time of Wilms' tumor occurrence is at age 3, and it occurs only rarely after age 8. Wilms' tumor may arise in either or both kidneys.

In Chico's words "After a long 3 years of missing my son and sitting around feeling sorry for myself. I've decided to do something about it..." and boy did he ever! Chico gathered up a group of his mixed martial artist friends and they started fighting..... literally - to bring attention to children's cancer. Their plan is to take every opportunity to bring much needed attention to this terrible disease thru fighting and planting a seed of awareness in every crowd who goes to see us fight.

Not only do these men and women give and take beatings to bring awareness -they volunteer their time, energy and money by visiting children's hospitals to bring a smile to the face of a child who is ill, volunteer their time to Ronald McDonald Houses and donated money to families to help ease the cost of hotel fees, meal and even overdue utility bills. In my humble opinion , these fighters are heroes! This is the opinion of my 10 year old son "Inthecage4cancer is cool and they kick butt". Let's all try to help them "tap this illness out in kids"!!

The Fighters

5 comments:

Kathy said...

Anyone getting cancer is difficult, but to see it in children is beyond words. Thank you for sharing this story.

Shelley said...

Thank you for sharing this inspiring story!

Very Verdant said...

What a great story. Very inspiring.

Audrey said...

What a great story, but so sad too. My cousin lost his daughter when she was 6 years old (not to cancer though). It's so hard when it happens to children so young.

Lona said...

Good for them. My brother had Wilms' tumor that showed up at 12 years of age. He lived until he was 15.