Young cancer patient raising money for research

Earlier this year 9-year-old Owain Weinert was diagnosed with Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia (ALL). Since then he’s been going through cancer treatment at Children’s Hospital, but the disease and treatments aren’t slowing him down.

Owain riding with Loyal Heights principal Wayne Floyd during the Syttende Mai parade.

On Sunday Owain and his family will be riding ten miles in the Seattle Livestrong Challenge. They had originally signed up for the 50 mile ride but after Owain’s diagnosis had to cut 40 miles off. “I want to show people that even though I have ALL that I am not helpless,” Owain tells us in an email typed out by his dad. “This chemo is really tough but I want to show people that I am not totally suckered by it.”

The third grader at Loyal Heights Elementary wants to raise as much money as possible for cancer research. “They are trying to find a cure – faster and less painful cures are better for people that are younger because I don’t want 2 and 3 and 4-year-olds to have to go through what I am going through right now. Hopefully in the future when somebody gets cancer, you’ll just get a couple of quick shots and it’ll all be over,” Owain says.

Although it looks like the disease is gone, Owain still has a couple years of chemo left to make sure it doesn’t come back, Owain’s dad Alex tells us. “He’s about to go into the toughest phase of chemo (in mid july) – that phase lasts 2 months (until mid-sept). Then he gets maintenance chemo for the rest of the time.”

Even with the tough chemo ahead of him, Owain is focused on one thing this Sunday: “Getting to the finish line!”

If you’d like to donate, Owain’s sponsorship page can be found here.