In 2015, at age 11, the world changed for our Natasha. On May 1, 2015, our active, bubbly, big-hearted 11 year old, was diagnosed with Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Gliomas (DIPG) a highly aggressive and difficult to treat brain tumor found at the base of the brain, mostly in children. Natasha used her time left on earth to raise her voice against this dreadful illness. She gained many friends and supporters in the process. Highlights of Natasha’s impact as a champion against childhood cancer:

• In September 2015 was guest speaker at CureFest USA in Washington, DC https://youtu.be/umYhcyqFcnw & co-hosted a follow-up CureFest event in Washington in October that same year. https://youtu.be/cCHqs6SZ9tM

• Natasha performed with Stars, her former Cheerleading Squad, at the Stampede City Showdown Competition at Mount Royal University (MRU) on March 12, 2016. Good luck wishes were received from all over the world including cheer teams from Australia and Scotland. Congratulatory videos were also received from country music singers Paul Brandt and Tim Hicks, Hedley, and Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi.

• Music star, OMI, learned of Natasha’s story and invited her and her Cheerleading Squad to perform at his concert at the Grey Eagle Casino in Calgary on May 1, 2016

• Appeared on CTV, CBC Radio’s Calgary Morningside, participated in a panel discussion on Al Jazeera’s The Stream, spoke at Calgary’s Vincent Massey Jr High’s Terry Fox event, was invited on stage at a MacKenzie Porter concert and had a song she wrote covered by MacKenzie Porter

In May 2015 Natasha was a special guest with childhood cancer fighter; “Tattoo Tom” Mitchell from https://stillbrave.org to present a Ted Talk to spread the word and raise awareness about the need for greater childhood cancer research and funding. https://youtu.be/Q7Myvpg9oNQ

In support of Natasha’s mission to help fight cancer and to raise awareness about this difficult disease, Natasha and her family created a blog located at www.prayfornatasha.ca Anyone interested in knowing more about efforts to raise awareness about DIPG and other childhood brain cancers can also go to: https://ccbcf.org/our-mission/.