A couple of years ago my husband and I met Jeremy "Doc" and Denise Clore through the cheerleading league that our youngest girls participate in.
We all became good friends fast.
It didn't take us long to noticed that they wore shirts that had an "Ashley's Angels" logo on them and that they were constantly participating in the Relay for Life events. So one evening while we were all together I finally get enough gumption up to ask.
Doc then explains that the "Ashley's Angels" is his team's name for Relay for Life and that it is in honor of their daughter Ashley Clore, who was diagnosed in March of 2004 at the age of 8 with Medulloblastoma.

*Medulloblastoma is a highly malignant brain tumor that originates in the cerebellum or posterior fossa.
It was once thought to represent a subset of a PNET (primitive neuroecodermal tumor), but it is now known through gene expression profiling that medulloblastomas have a distinct molecular profile and are very distinct from other PNET tumors. Medulloblastoma is also considered  infratentorial  PNET, because it usually forms in the fourth ventricle between the brainstem and the cerebellum. Tumors with similar appearance and characteristics originate in other parts of the brain, but they are not identical to medulloblastoma.
It is currently thought that medulloblastoma arises from cerebellar stem cells that have been prevented from dividing and differentiating into their normal cell types. It is also thought that it originates from immature or embryonal cells at the earliest stage of development, still the exact cell of origin or "medulloblast" has yet to be identified.

Symptoms usually present themselves 1 to 5 months before a proper diagnosis. The patient usually becomes listless, with repeated episodes of vomiting, and a morning headache.  Soon the patient also develops stumbling gait, frequent falls, diplopia, papilledma, and sixth cranial nerve palsy. Positional dizziness, nystagmus, facial sensory loss or motor weakness may also be present.  Late in the disease decerebrate attacks appear.

Medulloblastoma is the most common tumor found in children.  In adults, it is rare, presenting itself in fewer than 2% of malignancies. The incidence of childhood medulloblastoma is higher in males (62%) than in females (38%) and is more prevalent in younger children than in older ones. 40% of patients are diagnosed before the age of 5, 31% between 5-9, 18.3% between 10-14, and 12.7% between ages 15-19.
Patients with medulloblastoma or PNET are 50 times more likely to die than a matched member of the general population.  But with a maximal resection of the tumor, radiation, and chempotherapy permit a 5 year survival rate in more than 80% of cases.


Sadly, Ashley Monique Clore, after a brave two year battle, passed away on June 09, 2006, at the age of 10.

So Doc and Denise do all they can for "Ashley's Angels" to help find a cure for medulloblastoma and all other forms of cancer, so this way other children won't have to endure the battle that comes with cancer. Also that no other person will have to lose a loved one to this terrible disease.
For them it is also a way of keeping Ashley's memory alive not only in their heart, but the hearts of others.






Just a note: I want to Thank both Doc and Denise for allowing me to share their story. I as a parent could never imagine what you have been through. So all of us as parents should be grateful to God each day that we are blessed with our children, because we never know if this could be our story.


* information collected from Wikipedia.com