This Foundation is built on the dreams and memory of Rachael Newton. Rachael was only 14 years old when she passed away. She loved Elvis and had many Christmas ornaments, blankets, a pillow, everything she could find with Elvis on it and every CD. She also loved Audrey Hepburn; Breakfast at Tiffany’s was one of her favorite movies. Rachael was a self taught artist and wanted to be a fashion designer and had already started looking at schools. As part of her Make-A-Wish trip she chose to go to Paris, where she got seats at the end of the cat walk for a fashion show at Lafayette. Rachael had a big heart and she loved everyone; she wanted to help every homeless person she saw. She also had a great sense of humor. When she was 13 she lost her hair from the chemo and radiation and while most girls would be devastated Rachael would just poke fun at those of us who had to take the time to do our hair or had to buy shampoo.
The last few years of Rachael’s life were hard; she had a craniotomy (brain surgery), laminectomy (surgery to remove tumors from spinal cord), full head and spine radiation therapy, and chemotherapy. She also had daily migraines. As a way to help ensure that other kids didn’t go through what she was going through, she started making earrings and Christmas ornaments to sell and gave the money to her doctors for their research. She never said this was for her but for other children.
After Rachael passed away, I packed away the earrings and ornaments because it was just too painful for me to deal with. After some time I had friends convince me that we needed to continue this for Rachael, this was what she wanted and if she was still here she would be doing it. At that point we started the nonprofit paperwork; it became obvious that this was what we were supposed to be doing. When we contacted Rachael’s doctors they were establishing the Brain Tumor Institute at the same time and agreed to partner with us. Our nonprofit paperwork was quickly approved and the foundation has been growing steadily ever since. We will continue to raise the awareness of pediatric brain tumors and fund research into treatments and hopefully one day find a cure for this devastating disease.
