James Lodato

James was 6 and complained of pain in his groin one night and three days later a lump appeared. It took three weeks to get a local hospital to biopsy and then took another week to determine that he had rhabdomyosarcoma. They could not tell which type and staged him incorrectly because they never did a full body scan. We went to Memorial Sloan Kettering, but they needed the finalized pathology report before they would see us. Ten months later James died from Stage IV Alveolar Rhabdomyosarcoma at the age of 7. We were told there was no cure at diagnosis and there have been no improvements in treatment for this disease in decades because this disease is severely underfunded for research and treatment options. It’s not ok. Our children deserve better.