How many times has a birthday card been overlooked?
What about a child's kiss, taken for granted.
For the Carr family, every one of these moments over the past year has been a special one, one that is enjoyed, because this family know understands how fragile life is.
"Honestly we didn't know if he’d make it to this birthday,” Chad’s mother Tammi said. “So we’ve been taking this month as his birthday month.”
And there is so much to celebrate. For the past year, Chad has been battling, and beating, an inoperable brain tumor in his brain stem called Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma or DIPG. His "Chad Tough" foundation sparked a national social media outpouring from all over the country.
“Every day there are cards and there are packages and people are just being amazing and we try to not think too far ahead but we’re going to make sure this is a really special birthday," Carr added.
Friday was Chad's birthday, and this Saturday there will be a party, but not necessarily just for him. The Carr's are hosting the second annual ‘RunTough for ChadTough’ in Saline to raise funds for pediatric cancers, specifically DIPG, which virtually has no government funding.
"There needs to be more being done for this. There needs to be more research, there is zero dollars allocated from the federal cancer budget, zero. Any money that’s been raised for this has been from families like ours," Carr added.
If you can't race Saturday you can join the thousands of other supports online, the Chad tough go fund me account is over $37,000, while every dollar at the race this weekend will be matched, as the Carr's want other families to feel the comfort of support that they did, when tragedy struck.
“Seeing such amazing examples of the goodness that still exists through this experience. We don’t know where this is going, but we know there will be good that comes out of it. We’ve seen the good in people, we’ve seen amazing, amazing good and we’re going to create more good throughout this foundation,” Carr added.
For more information about the race this weekend, visit the RunTough for ChadTough website.
