Carson Leslie Foundation

Research & Advocacy - As the only nonprofit with exclusive focused research efforts on medulloblastoma, we continue to coalesce the medulloblastoma community and collaboratively invest in research for low toxic medulloblastoma treatment leading to a cure of the awful disease. We once again held our two annual events: (1) Researcher's RoundUp which, in partnership with the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT), gathered Texas' top childhood cancer investigators to discuss and identify collaborate projects and helped to frame requests for awards; and (2) Golden Toast where we gathered our legislative leaders and the childhood cancer community to celebrate our unstoppable-collaborative, GLOBAL movement benefiting the overall state of childhood cancer.

Mental Health Support - The will to live is vital to any child with cancer, and we operated 3 programs to address the mental health struggles of kids in the battle: (1) we delivered our signature backpacks to hospitals across the Lone Star State and as far as Italy and the Philippines (these backpacks are given to newly diagnosed teens and young adults and include gifts and necessities to both encourage them and ease their transition into the hospital); (2) we donated thoughtfully curated packages of gifts as part of our Hearts of Gold Hootenannies to Children's Health Dallas each month for distribution (we basically became like the Tooth Fairy and Santa every month); and (3) we continued to support Carson's Corner, the teen room which we founded and serves over 800 teen cancer patients at Children's Health Dallas, by keeping it stocked with the latest gaming systems, games, and art supplies.