Hey everyone, I’m back for the last blog post of the semester. I struggled to find an organization to write about for this, but one of my friends told me that I should look into Make It Amazing. MIA (Make It Amazing) is a foundation that was founded by James McCaffrey to raise money for his daughter Mia McCaffrey. Make It Amazing partners with Infinite Love, an organization that raises money for children fighting cancer. Mia was diagnosed with cancer when she was 5 years old, and her battle with cancer is a very humbling story to hear. She was born on June 19th, 2010 and she unfortunately passed away on March 17th, 2017. At the beginning of her journey, Mia’s parents noticed her left cheek swelling a large amount. After Mia was taken in for multiple MRIs, the doctors found a large mass on the left side of her cheek that had gone up behind her eye. They did not say it was cancer at the time, but later on, Mia was diagnosed, and the journey began. On the Make It Amazing website, there are many photos of young Mia smiling, dying her hair funky rainbow colors, and having fun, but there are also many photos shared that depict the true life of a cancer patient. It is humbling to see a young child go through something so life altering and yet she is still able to smile through it and make her life worth living. Mia’s family fell into a routine with her treatments and eventually had to move to New Jersey to accommodate to her treatment plans. Much of the information that I have obtained from the website was written by Mia’s mother, who is real and raw while telling she and her family’s story throughout this horrible disease.

Make It Amazing was founded to raise money for their family’s battle through cancer, and today they have partnered with Infinite Love to help other families with children battling this disease. One of their famous fundraisers is The TuTu Trot 5K which raises money for Infinite Love. Mia’s father is a cross-country coach who wanted to incorporate his passion with an organization that means the most to him. The TuTu Trot is a 5k, team relay, or fun walk. Raising money for Infinite Love, along with childhood cancer, is something extremely important to the McCaffrey family. The lost their daughter to childhood cancer, which is the #1 disease killer of children in the US. Only 4% of the money raised for cancer today is donated to pediatrics. This is not enough money to be donated to children with cancer, especially when so many children’s lives are taken by this horrible disease. I have written about THON along with this post, both organizations that raise money for children with cancer. Organizations such as these need to keep pushing and advocating for children with cancer. The money raised thus far has immensely helped many families, including Mia’s. The fight to cure cancer will continue on forever, and one day Mia’s family will know that no more families will have to endure what they did. Make It Amazing.