Maddie's Promise: Real Progress

The Hingham 'Cast

Maddie McCoy lost her battle to a rare childhood cancer called rhabdomyosarcoma in 2019. She was just 11-years-old. While she was still alive, her family and friends launched Maddie's Promise. It was a sweet push to help Maddie raise money for other kids in the hospital and the people she saw living homeless on the streets of Boston.

That promise is now a promise to do everything possible to find better treatments and a cure for rhabdomyosarcoma. This episode shows it is not a shot in the dark or a Hail Mary pass. Money raised by Maddie's Promise has helped researchers create new cell lines and launch a clinical trial. The sometimes modest gifts have helped doctors show the federal government there is promise on the horizon. That promise has secured them a nearly two million dollar grant from the National Institues of Health and free cancer treatment drugs for potential patients. It is thrilling to hear how one small community can have a massive impact on helping these children who have for decades been considered largely "untreatable."