The North Texas Chapter of The Cure Starts Now was started by Michelle and Steve Bjornberg in honor of their daughter, Sydney Reece Bjornberg. Sydney was a vibrant, beautiful, smart, kind, silly, fun, caring, 11-year-old girl with a great sense of humor. Sydney loved to run, swim, jump on the trampoline, play with her little brother, ride her bicycle, and she could ski (her favorite thing to do) down any slope on the mountain at Wolf Creek Ski Resort in Colorado. On May 21, 2012 Sydney was diagnosed with DIPG, an inoperable brain tumor, one week prior to her 5th grade graduation. She spent much of the next 13 months getting cat scans, MRI’s with contrast, blood tests, a biopsy to get a sample of her brain tumor, radiation, steroids and chemo infusions. Sydney never complained after her diagnosis; she just wanted to know that there was “hope” and wanted to “believe” that if she did what was asked of her, she would get better. Sydney was an inspiration to so many as she continued to smile, giggle, and make us laugh even during the most difficult times during her treatments. Once Sydney knew there was no more hope near the end, she agreed to donate her DIPG tumor to the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute to help find a cure. She focused on the things she could do, not the things DIPG took from her, right up until she passed away on June 26th, 2013. We want children and parents in the near future that hear the words “Your child has cancer” or even worse “Your child has DIPG” to have hope for a cure and extended quality life, not just hope to survive for an extra few months after going through such harsh treatments.
