Dreaming The Cure was created in 2010 by Gino and Victoria Ayala. On April 20, 2007 our daughter Josephine at age 15 months old was diagnosed with a Brain Stem Glioma. A neurosurgeon named, Dr. David Donahue gave us hope and said he would do "whatever it took to keep our daughter with us". In August 2007 she underwent brain surgery to try to remove the whole tumor. After 6 hours of surgery Dr. Don
ahue was unsuccessful to remove the entire tumor, but was able to remove a large portion of the tumor. In September 2009 after multiple MRI’s of monitoring the tumor every 3-4 months we were told her tumor grew. Our doctors who we now call “Josephine’s Dream Team”. Dr. Jeffrey Murray, oncologist and Dr. David Donahue, neurosurgeon discussed Josephine’s case at a medical conference with other specialists to see what would be the best option of treatment for her. Their findings showed that surgery was out of the question Josephine would either not survive during the surgery or she would neurologically be damaged for life. The only safe and effective option would be chemotherapy. Dr. Murray explained all options to us and stated that she would have to take 14 months of chemotherapy, but he said the word that Gino and I have been praying for since we started this journey with Josephine. Dr. Murray stated because of research and the knowledge they now have on brain tumors, With Josephine getting chemotherapy, the treatments would possibly “Cure” her. The doctor also informed us that going through this process would be life changing not only for Josephine but for Our Whole family. She underwent a total of 6-7 hours of chemo through an IV every Tuesday for 14 mos. During the chemotherapy, her brain tumor was monitored by MRI's every 3 mos. All "Five" MRI's showed the tumor decreased in size. As of March 2011, Josephine completed her chemo treatments. With all she has gone through she has never lost her Great personality. She won the hearts of all the Cook Children's Hematology and Oncology nurses, Child Life Volunteers and made lots of friends boys and girls who were also getting chemotherapy. Since she was 3 she has done basketball, ballet, tap, T-ball and currently doing hip hop. She doesn't let her brain tumor stop her from doing normal activities that other children do. We feel blessed and we owe it of course to GOD first and to the many special doctors who I see care for our children and who also want to see our children cured.. Every week during Josephine’s treatments, we saw parents and their child also going through the same thing we were. This is why Gino and I feel compassionate in what we want to do for our child and every child diagnosed with a life-threatening disease. Dreaming The Cure will help support the research in finding a cure for families now effected and future families.
