Mike Dechristopher will talk about the Dylan Project which he started in 2012, to originally help 1 Pediatric Cancer patient but now buys 10 gifts during the holiday season for many patients and is known as the Real Life Santa Claus.

In October of 2022 Zamara Jankowski, who was 10 months old, began to experience an odyssey that no child ever should have to go through. After being seen at 3 different hospitals, in which all of the doctors involved said that she was basically fine although perhaps suffering from some type of flu, Zamara was finally diagnosed with Neuroblastoma in late December of 2023, 14 months after her symptoms began to present themselves. Everything that could have gone wrong, did go wrong for Zamara and her mom Danielle, with the blame that should be carried focusing on the 3 hospitals that looked at her symptoms and did not act in proper fashion after seeing them.  After waiting 425 days, Zamara was diagnosed with Neuroblastoma and 28 days after that, she passed away on January 25th of 2024,

Loretta Brooks was diagnosed with a Head and Neck Cancer known as Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma when she was 13 years old in 1991, causing her to miss almost all of her 8th grade school year. Loretta recovered well from that form of cancer and now has dedicated her life to advocacy work for Pediatric Cancer, with a particular emphasis on the subject of survivorship, which is always a difficult issue for former Pediatric cancer patients as they move into young adulthood and then adulthood. 

Sophia Gerosa was 3 years old in April of 2025 when she was diagnosed with High Risk B Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. After receiving great care and treatment from her caregivers at Advent Health For Children in Orlando, Sophia has completed difficult months of treatment and is now in the Maintenance program which she will complete in August of 2027.

6 year old Miriam Koska was experiencing leg pain, abdominal pain, fevers, night sweats and fatigue in the fall of 2025 when she was diagnosed with an offshoot of Neuroblastoma known as Ganglioneuroblastoma. This form of Pediatric Cancer has a similar treatment protocol to the more well known Neuroblastoma. Miriam has been through difficult treatment but is doing as well as possible as she enters her next phase of treatment at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.  

Megakaryoblastic Leukemia is an even more aggressive form of Acute Myeloid Leukemia, which always is a difficult form of Pediatric Blood Cancer.  Olivia White was 15 months old in February of 2024 when she was diagnosed with this disease. After some very difficult struggles with her treatment, Olivia has been feeling much better over the past months as she approaches her 4th birthday this coming November.

For the second time in just a few months on this podcast, we heard the story of a Fungal Infection that attacked a child who was in treatment for Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia and this infection could not be stopped for causing a child to pass away. This time it was Lola Aguilar, the 6 year old daughter of Alyssa who spoke beautifully on our podcast about what her beloved daughter had to go through after falling to the floor on Halloween in 2024, just as she was about to go Trick or Treating. 

Harper Wengrod was born on January 12th of 2024 and by the end of that year , a lump on her abdomen that her dad Joe found after Thanksgiving that was thought to be Neuroblastoma was the probable cause. That was not to be the case however as Joe and Melanie were to learn that Harper was actually suffering from Stage 3 Sertoli Cell Ovarian Cancer. This is such a rare diagnosis for a child not even a year old to receive, as Ovarian Cancer is found in women decades older than that. Harper continues to fight her battle on a daily basis and physically it looks as if she is a completely healthy toddler.

After hearing the story of a friend that had a child who was diagnosed with a form of Pediatric Cancer, Mike Dechristopher got involved in this Pediatric Cancer cause in 2012 and started the Dylan Project. This Non-Profit now has helped hundreds of families in the New England area and brings joy to these kids by buying gifts each holiday season and delivering them to their homes, giving him the nickname of the Real Life Santa Claus, a nickname that is well deserved. 

Lainy Sharpe began to feel numbness in her legs, followed by paralysis when she was 12 years old in the summer of 2023. Her diagnosis was Mesenchymal Chondrosarcoma, which as rare of a diagnosis as it gets. Lainy fought as hard as possible before passing away in January of 2025 and was very much a part of the Pediatric Cancer community during her fight, which was proven by her winning the Children's Healthy Hero Award for her dedication to helping others at Banner Children's Hospital in Tucson, Arizona.

Elena Lappostato was complaining of mouth pain in September of 2025 and just a couple of weeks later, she was diagnosed with Neuroblastoma when she was 3 years old. Since that time , Elena has undergone difficult treatment including 2 autoglous stem cell transplants and is now doing well and has recently begun the next phase of her treatment which is Post Consolidation.