Thea's Star of Hope brings Hope to every family touched by pediatric brain tumors.
Our Beginning
Trisha Danze, Thea’s mom, founded Thea’s Star of Hope in 2011 with a mission to improve the treatment experience for kids with brain tumors.
“Star of Hope” is the embodiment of Thea’s positive outlook and a testament to the indelible spirit so many diagnosed children maintain despite terrifying diagnosis, painful treatment and an uncertain future.
Our Purpose
We aim to improve treatments and provide support for families of kids with brain tumors so that they can live and not just survive.
That means we support research for improved therapies with fewer side effects and efforts to make treatments more tolerable. We also provide resources for families undergoing treatment or dealing with the long-term effects resulting from treatments.
Thousands of children live with brain tumors. Treatments allow many to live into adulthood, but most of these children experience long-lasting impact to their body, mind or spirit.
Despite medical advances to treat other forms of cancer, brain tumors are still an extremely serious condition for children, and the second-leading cause of cancer mortality in kids after leukemia. Overall, pediatric brain tumor patients have the most quality of life challenges compared to other cancer survivors.
Thea's All Stars
Meet Justin Wire
15 months ago, Justin had taken a spill on his skateboard while riding at his favorite skatepark. He was taken to a local emergency room with what were thought to be concussion symptoms. A CAT scan soon revealed a severe case of hydrocephalus. Justin was then airlifted to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia where he underwent emergency brain surgery to relieve the pressure in his brain and was then diagnosed with an inoperable brain stem glioma (tumor).
Read more of Justin's story and those of Thea's All Stars.
Get In Touch
Reach out to Give Hope
Please let us know how you would like to help kids with brain tumors live and not just survive.
Brain tumors are the leading cause of cancer deaths in children -- you can give them hope