about us

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.

She is now with us each & every day as we work together to raise funds for imperative pediatric brain cancer research. Little is known about the cause of pediatric brain cancers, including PNETs, yet diagnosis statistics are on the rise in the U.S., and medical research is grossly underfunded.

Founded in 2007, the Kyrie Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit, strives to raise awareness & funding for pediatric brain cancer research. Our long-term goals include funding cutting-edge pediatric brain tumor research projects in coordination doctoral teams from hospitals like St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, Duke University Medical Center, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and many others through our alignment with the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation of the U.S. located in Asheville, N.C. Funds willing, we also plan to financially assist families with a child diagnosed with brain cancer as well as promote personal action for good works.

Kyrie’s story also inspired the formation of our affiliate, Kyrie’s Gift, Inc., a non-profit ministry based in Holland, Michigan, that provides Christian-themed coloring books to pediatric hospital units.

Please join us.

facts about
pediatric brain tumors

published by the PBTFUS

• In the year 2000, more than 26,000 children in the U.S. were living with the diagnosis of a primary central nervous system tumor. Each year 3,200 new cases are diagnosed.(1)

• Every day, nine children in the U.S. are diagnosed with a brain tumor.

• Brain tumors are the leading cause of cancer death from childhood cancer, accounting for 24 percent of cancer-related deaths in 1997 among persons up to 19.(2)

• 76 percent of children diagnosed with a brain tumor are younger than 15.

• There are more than 120 different types of brain tumors, making effective treatment very complicated.

• Pediatric brain tumors are different from those in adults and are often treated differently.

• The combined five-year survival rates for childhood brain tumors has increased slowly, from 54 percent to approximately 60 percent.(3) However, for some pediatric brain tumors (e.g., brain stem gliomas, atypical teritoid/rhabdoid and glioblastoma multifome), long-term survival rates remain below 20 percent.

• Because brain tumors are located at the control center for thought, emotion and movement, their effects on a child’s physical and cognitive abilities can be devastating.

• Quality of life for survivors of pediatric brain tumors is influenced by the long-term side effects of treatments such as chemotherapy and radiation.

• Unlike other benign tumors, benign brain tumors may recur and may result in death.

• Brain tumors are treated by surgery, radiation therapy and chemotherapy, used either individually or in combination.

• Improving the outlook for children with brain tumors requires research into the causes of and better treatments for brain tumors.

1. Central Brain Tumor Registry of the United States (CBTRUS) report, Primary Brain Tumors in the United States, 2004-2005.

2. Report of the Brain Tumor Progress Review Group; published in 2000 by the National Cancer Institute and the National Institute for Neurological Diseases and Stroke.

3. “Oncology,” medical journal of the National Cancer Institute, March 1998.

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about our logo

Accomplished designer Julie Reed donated her time & talent to create our logo. The metamorphosis of a butterfly—all the personal energy it embodies and the symbolism of good development & change—captures the spirit of The Kyrie Foundation’s goals. Notice, though, that our butterfly’s wings are very different; they are beautiful angel wings, to protect & guide, to soar as a messenger between us & heaven.

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