POWELL — A Powell teenager’s foundation to support pediatric brain tumor research has reached $500,000 in fundraising.
The Natalie Gray Foundation’s 18-year-old founder and namesake made the announcement at the fourth-annual “Nat Gala” fundraiser on June 11.
That same evening, Gray handed over a $500,000 check to CONNECT Consortium, a global consortium of more than 30 institutions developing and testing treatments for pediatric brain tumors.
The founding director of CONNECT, Dr. Maryam Fouladi, is a pediatric neuro-oncologist, co-executive director of the pediatric neuro-oncology program at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and a critical member of Gray’s care team.
Fouladi introduced Gray to CONNECT, which provides clinical trials to kids like her.
Gray said before becoming part of one of those trials herself, she was receiving outdated treatment via a drug that’s been on the market for 70 years and caused her long-term side effects.
“I still deal with some of those side effects today,” the Olentangy Liberty High School graduate said.
During and after the trial, Gray was able to take a newly-approved pill by the FDA that caused hardly any side effects.
“But not every kid gets to experience that because there’s not enough funding,” Gray said.
The half-million dollar check will help other kids get the same experience she did, which is part of her mission for her foundation.
How the foundation came to be
In July 2021, at just 13 years old, Gray was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor that cannot be surgically removed.
She first went to the hospital for symptoms and the doctors sent her home thinking she had a migraine. Two days later, Nationwide Children’s Hospital doctors found the mass.
Gray was in her first brain surgery within 12 hours of the discovery.
The surgery involved installing a permanent tube that drains fluids from the brain into the stomach, because her tumor was blocking the brain from doing so naturally.
“Everything happened really fast,” she said.
Gray came up with the idea to start a foundation during her first weeks at Nationwide Children’s.
“I wanted to start it to raise awareness mostly,” she said.
“I immediately learned this is one of the lowest-funded areas of all pediatric cancers and it’s the deadliest. That just doesn’t genuinely add up.”
Brain and spinal cord tumors are the second-most common cancers in children after leukemia. They account for about one out of five newly-diagnosed childhood cancers in the United States, with around 4,900 brain and spinal cord tumors diagnosed each year, according to the American Cancer Society.
A few months after her diagnosis, Gray, with the help of her board, created social media accounts and a website. They also hosted the first foundation event, a golf tournament where hundreds of people came and donated thousands of dollars.
“That was a turning point for us,” Gray said.
After that, she and her team set out to raise $250,000 within five years. By 2023, they met that goal, but knew they could do more.
So they upped it to $500,000.
Gray got the news that they made the goal just days before the fourth-annual Nat Gala.
“We were jumping up and down and smiling so big. It’s such a big milestone,” she said.
What’s the next goal?
Gray said she doesn’t know what’s in store next for the foundation, but she knows there’s still more work to do.
“We still have a lot of things we want to accomplish,” she said.
She’ll accomplish those dreams while attending Otterbein University starting in the fall, where she’ll study health sciences.
“I will continue the foundation throughout college. I want to do patient care advocacy because one thing I learned through my journey is you have to be your biggest advocate,” she said.
That’s still true to this day, even while her tumor is stable.
Gray encouraged people to get involved with the foundation, even if the cause seemingly doesn’t impact them.
Donations are always appreciated, Gray said, but she also needs event volunteers or even people to spread the word about the foundation’s cause.
