• 
  Life before diagnosis, a typically lively 4 year old loving preschool, friends and family.
• 
  Cathryn’s 5th birthday, two weeks before diagnosis
• 
  A beautiful Mother’s Day event at pre-school right when Cathryn began to complain of back ache.
• 
  Cathryn, age 3 and adorable
• 
  Cathryn and her sisters, 2005
• 
  Family vacation, summer 2006
• 
  Preschool fun and the impish Cathryn who captured everyone’s heart.Preschool fun and the impish Cathryn who captured everyone’s heart.
• 
  The girl who lived in her princess dresses!
• 
  July 2005

Introducing Cathryn

The Friends of Cathryn Fund was founded to honor Cathryn who had just turned 5 when she was diagnosed with Stage lV Neuroblastoma. The diagnosis came after six months of back pain, headaches and fatigue during which time Cathryn exhibited no outward, physical symptoms. Most Pediatrician’s will never see a Neuroblasoma child as it’s rare, with merely a few hundred children diagnosed in the US each year. Susan’s “mother’s intuition” told her something was off and, upon demanding an X-ray after multiple doctor visits, the tumor and its malignancies throughout Cathryn’s small body were discovered on November 4th 2008 and the family’s journey into the children’s cancer world had begun.
​
Cathryn spent 13 months and over 290 nights in the hospital from November 2008 to December, 2009. Cathryn missed attending school, playtime with her friends, and living a ‘normal’ life with her sister, Grace, who was a first grader at the time. Through the generosity of their community, the family pulled through and, in December 2009, Cathryn was out of treatment and clear of disease.

Cathryn’s treatment included:
Surgery to remove a large avocado-sized tumor buried in her chest.
Six rounds of chemotherapy, administered in-patient but which required hospitalizations for fevers between rounds.
A stem cell transplant t which required one month in the ICU and 2 months of isolation at home.
13 days of Radiation to her tumor site.
Five months of hypnotherapy, administered in-patient one week a month.
Six weeks of oral Accutane to rid trace cells of Neuroblastoma which may have remained in her system.
​
After experiencing first hand the horror of the treatments and the impact of the long term affects, the Giustos took up the cause to help fund less toxic therapies for Neuroblastoma and other cancers impacting children.