Every year, I come back to St. Baldrick’s for one very simple reason: kids deserve the chance to grow up.

But there’s also a much more personal reason I got involved.

Years ago, I found myself thinking about something no parent ever wants to imagine: What would I do if one of my children was diagnosed with cancer?

And honestly, the thought broke me.

Because beyond the fear of losing your child, there is another terrifying reality. Most of us are not independently wealthy. We are not funding research laboratories or developing new treatments ourselves. If my child ever needed some groundbreaking treatment, clinical trial, or resource that could save their life, I would be depending on doctors, researchers, organizations, and complete strangers who had decided that helping children with cancer mattered enough to give.

That realization stuck with me.

I remember thinking: If I would desperately hope that other people had donated to help save my child, then I need to be one of those people for someone else’s.

That is why I support childhood cancer organizations personally, and why I continue to fundraise with St. Baldrick’s year after year.

Kids deserve birthdays, graduations, awkward teenage years, first jobs, big dreams, bad haircuts, family vacations, and all the wonderfully ordinary moments that make up a life.

Childhood cancer can steal those moments far too soon.

St. Baldrick’s funds childhood cancer research aimed at finding better treatments, safer treatments, and ultimately cures. I may never be the scientist in the lab discovering the next breakthrough, but I can help fund the person who is.

And so can you.

You do not have to be wealthy to make a difference. A whole lot of ordinary people choosing to give what they can can become something extraordinary: another research grant, another treatment option, another breakthrough, another child getting to grow up.

That is why I keep showing up.

And if you choose to donate, thank you for being one of those people too.