The Making Headway Foundation Commemorates 25 Years of Helping Children with Brain and Spinal Cord Tumors

Chappaqua, N.Y., October 8, 2021 – With bittersweetness, the Making Headway Foundation is commemorating their milestone 25th Anniversary as a Foundation dedicated to the care, comfort, and cure of children with brain and spinal cord tumors. Why bittersweet? In the U.S., more children die from brain, spinal cord, or other central nervous system (CNS) tumors than from any other disease.

Sadly, the collateral damage, pain, stress, emotional, and physiological disruption of both diagnosis and often grueling treatment can have a lifelong impact. As a result of surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation, as well as lost school time, most survivors experience a combination of cognitive and social deficits that can have a significant impact on the child. Children with brain tumors are receiving the best medical care available, but hospitals are often not able to provide the critically necessary support services that these kids, their siblings, and their parents need.

Making Headway fills the gap between medical care and ongoing support through a variety of proven programs that are designed specifically for this population. In the hospital, its team of psychologists, education specialists, family liaisons, and other caring professionals provides care and activities for the young patient, plus resources for families. The Foundation also funds groundbreaking research, facilities that provide tissue and data to researchers around the world, and highly technical medical equipment and neuropsychological expertise for its partner hospitals in the New York metro area.

Once the child is out of the hospital, and in the years that follow, Making Headway provides services like psychological therapy, educational advocacy, college scholarships, group excursions and events, and more.

Over the past 25 years, Making Headway Foundation has provided tens of thousands of hours of free psychological therapy and free professional educational advocacy services and programs for children. It has hosted many events including Broadway shows, Hudson River cruises, “Family Fun Days,” and more, bringing stressed and often isolated families together for a day of relaxation and camaraderie. In recent years, Making Headway has awarded over one hundred college scholarships so survivors can follow their dreams. And its investments in medical research have led to critical, life-changing discoveries. What once started with an ambitious vision of a few families, has become a leading organization in the field of pediatric cancer, with an annual budget of over $1.5 million.

Making Headway’s founders: Maya & Edward Manley, along with Elisa and Clint Greenbaum, know firsthand what it is like to be parents of children who had brain tumors. They know well the gaps left by even the best medical care when a child has the scariest of all diseases – a brain tumor. They wanted to make it as easy as possible for newly diagnosed children and their families. The impressive achievements of the Foundation even drew the attention of President Bill Clinton, who included a description of its work in his 2007 book, Giving.

“Having a child with a brain or spinal cord tumor will always be devastating. Every family develops its own resilience to the pain and the work needed to move forward each day” said Daniel Lipka, Executive Director of the Making Headway Foundation. “This year, we honor our 25th year of helping families throughout their entire journey. We have done so much, and come so far, but there is still so much more to do.”

About Making Headway Foundation:

The Making Headway Foundation is a 501c3 non-profit organization that has helped thousands of children diagnosed with brain or spinal cord tumors, and their families. The Foundation has its headquarters in Chappaqua, NY, but works with hospitals and families in New York City, Westchester, Long Island, New Jersey, and Connecticut. Many of its programs have been replicated by hospitals across the U.S. Learn more or donate to help children diagnosed with brain or spinal cord tumors, at makingheadway.org.