If your calendar is like ours, it is likely reminding you that our annual Colton’s Army Guild event should be coming soon - so we wanted to send you a note with an update on what is happening with our guild’s event this year. We made the unfortunate decision to cancel this year’s in person event due to safety and have rescheduled it for November 13, 2021 at Mill Creek Country Club so please mark your calendar for what we hope will be our reunion of sorts. In the meantime, cancelling our efforts for this year doesn’t feel right in our cancer crushing, ruckus raising hearts so we are hosting our first Colton’s Army Guild ‘non-event’ fundraiser!
We are asking all of our previous donors and sponsors to consider donating what you can, knowing that this year has been full of unfortunate events by many.
Our donation link is LIVE and our fundraising non-event will run through the end of November with our goal being $21,000 (which is not only Colton’s favorite number 21, but it is also the same goal we had 4 years ago when we hosted our first ever Colton’s Army Guild event).
To donate to our non-event, here is the link:
(all donations are tax-deductible; if your employer matches, please don’t forget to submit your receipt – it all adds up!)
https://give.seattlechildrens.org/ColtonsArmyGuild
If you were at our Casino Royale Dinner & Auction last Fall, you might remember that we raised a serious ruckus against cancer – thanks to you!
Our guild supports the vital research being done daily at Seattle Children’s towards a cure to Childhood Cancer! Here is an update from Colton’s doctor, Rebecca Gardner, MD with how some of our guild money has been utilized in the lab in the last 11 months.
We are looking at monocytes (part of your immune system) and the role that they play in both side effect of CAR T cells and change of remission. We are getting some really cool preliminary data that may enable us to figure out up front who is going to develop severe neurotoxicity and how we could prevent that as well as who won’t get into remission from the CAR T cells.
I am working with a pediatric neurologist to try and understand the neurocognitive outcomes after CAR T cell therapy and getting some preliminary data. We are working closely with CHLA and both NIH on this work. Also going to combine efforts among these institutions as well as a few others to look at MRI findings to try and learn more about neurotoxicity.
We are getting Kymriah opened here at Seattle Children’s (the trial where Colton is patient #22). There is a program with Novartis where patients may need to receive it as part of a research study instead of a commercial product if it doesn’t pass all of the release testing. Norvartis doesn’t give any money to us for this so we are using a little bit of CA money to help cover costs in the event that we have a patient who needs this.
Without our guild dollars, progress in immunotherapy would not be possible. So, thank you for continuing to support our efforts and the heroic efforts of Seattle Children’s. As a another result of the pandemic, Colton’s Army will not be able to participate in the annual Big Climb resulting in this being our only fundraiser to support cancer research.
Thank you in advance for your continued support and generosity. We are truly grateful for each and everyone of you.
A few facts before we sign off….
Colton has his first ‘survivorship’ appointment next week at Seattle Children’s where we are hopeful to learn about where we go ‘from here.’ The road after cancer is not an easy one to navigate but we are grateful to be where we are.
Colton has been off ‘treatment’ for 3 years as of this week!
Colton will celebrate 6 years of remission in January 2021….something we all look forward to and pray for.
Colton’s Army Guild celebrates 4 years of being a guild in 2020….we’ve already raised over $400k supporting Seattle Children’s and we are far from done!