Big Hearts for Little Brains +
The Kyrie Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit based in the Midwest raising research funds to cure the #1 cancer-killer of children: pediatric brain cancer. More about us »
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do something
Run, walk or donate to the annual
Kyrie Foundation 5K and Family Walk!
The Kyrie Foundation
The Kyrie Foundation exists to raise awareness and research funds that will cure pediatric brain cancer. Raising over a quarter of a million dollars to date, we represent the Midwest as an active contributor in the need for awareness and fundraising to make the cure possible in our lifetimes.
Read more about us + What we do
Where does the money go?
100% of our efforts currently support the Kyrie Foundation Tissue Bank Fund. Aligned with the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation in Asheville, North Carolina, the Kyrie Foundation Tissue Bank Fund helps manage tumor tissue samples, which enable research advancement from world’s best pediatric brain tumor researchers, including Duke University, Univ. of California-San Francisco, Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and many more. The tissue is where the cure begins.
It began withKyrie
In February 2007, Jordan & Lacie Thome’s 17-month-old daughter and only child, Kyrie, was diagnosed with a primitive neuroectodermal tumor (PNET), a rare and voracious malignant brain cancer. During the next nine weeks, their daughter prevailed through several invasive brain surgeries and chemotherapy in Wichita, Kansas. However, the first follow-up MRI showed the cancer’s expansive growth throughout the brain and spine.
The angels came for Kyrie on the evening of April 7, 2007.
Her life here was cut short by a cancer that took over before she even had a chance to fight. At such a tender age, Kyrie was just beginning to put first words into small sentences, learning to color, hugging stuffed animals, feeling loved when snuggling with her mom, feeling delight when playing jokes on her dad, feeling compassion for squashed bugs.
She didn’t get to start preschool. She never took a dance class, kicked a soccer ball or built a sand castle. She had one birthday.
We were much like you before Kyrie’s diagnosis. We didn’t know that children could even get brain cancer, let alone be the biggest cancer monster facing our kids today. We thought more people should talk about it, more people should actually DO something—anything—to help. That’s why we began working to raise funds for imperative pediatric brain cancer research.
Numbers to know:
