Lyle Prescott, left, enjoys ice cream with his older brother, Judd, 12. Lyle, who idolized his only sibling, succumbed to cancer in November, but his parents will hold a lemonade stand fundraiser to aid other parents and pediatric cancer research. Submitted photo

According to the American Cancer Society, about 9,620 children in the United States under the age of 15 will be diagnosed with cancer this year.

St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital reports an estimated 400,000 children around the world develop cancer each year, and only half of them are ever diagnosed.

While the National Cancer Institute has seen an increase in federal funding for the Cancer Moonshot initiative, the funding of public and private research to end cancer will only need more cash infusions until the goal is reached.

Enter Dave and Gina (Gigliotti) Proscott.

A piece in the Eagle on Wednesday by community editor Paula Grubbs detailed the sad but hopeful path the Prescotts took to become boosters of childhood cancer research.

The couple lost their own son, Lyle, who was an energetic and active boy who loved music, dancing, Pokemon, Cub Scouts, coloring and going to school. He died Nov. 5, two days before his seventh birthday.

Lyle’s parents and his brother, Judd, 12, who he idolized, now want to do everything they can to help parents whose treasured children have been given a cancer diagnosis, and they want to help fund research to find a cure for childhood cancers.

So they teamed up with Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation, which was founded by the late Alexandra Scott, who, at age 4, set up a lemonade stand in her front yard to raise money for the doctors at the hospital where she received treatment, so they could find a cure for childhood cancers.

Lyle Prescott

The Prescotts will hold “Lyle’s Legacy” from 4 to 6 p.m. Monday, June 17, in the parking lot at North Main Street Church of God, 1201 N. Main St. Extension, Butler.

Servings of lemonade will be available for $1 each, and a QR code for online donations plus a jar for cash and checks will be available.

All proceeds will benefit the foundation, which funds research for better treatments and cures for childhood cancer, and emotional, financial and logistical support to childhood cancer families.

The Prescotts, of Summit Township, said their world was forever changed when Lyle was diagnosed with high-grade glioma in spring 2021. The aggressive tumor was found in his cervical spine.

“The doctor said he had less than a year to live,” Gina said.

Thanks to prior advances in cancer research, Lyle survived three years after that diagnosis. The Prescotts know that further advances in the research will one day not only extend the life of a child dying of cancer, but will cure the cancer.

The painful road the Prescotts have taken have led them to a place of hope. Their continuing journey may one day lead another family from a terminal childhood cancer diagnosis to a cure.

That’s something we can all get behind.

— RJ