A Legacy of Love and Hope: Julianna Sayler Foundation

Stacie Sayler of Walla Walla Washington tells the story of a happy family of 5 on a small farm, Eric Sayler the father is a pastor, and mom home-schools her children.  One day everything changed when Stacie noticed her daughter's eye was not tracking properly. Julianna was diagnosed shortly thereafter with a deadly brain cancer of which the family had never heard, and they were told to just go home and make memories as she probably would not live another year.

Determined to find answers for herself and for those children yet to be diagnosed, Julianna and her parents embarked on a journey around the world in search of a potential or future cure. Julianna fought long and hard but the virulently aggressive tumor took her life just 9 months after her diagnosis, experimental treatments at the Harley Street Clinic in London, England, and in Monterrey Mexico.

The Julianna Sayler Foundation helps families pursue their dreams of a cure, and shares Julianna's unending love and faith in the goodness of life.

 

 

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About Janet


Blessed with varied interests and an artistic and musical upbringing, Janet had health challenges throughout her young adult life. Despite these she graduated Cum Laude from Wellesley College with an award of distinction for acting, and had also been a champion equestrian. She began a family with her husband Barry later in life, and had finally found happiness with daughter Sophie-Marie (3/12/06) and then baby (Jack 8/30/08). Five weeks after his birth, the family escaped a wildfire in which all worldly possessions were lost. The family relocated in December of 2008 to Agua Dulce CA where they currently reside.

Jack began to have unsettling symptoms at the age of 3; he was taken to Children's Hospital Los Angeles and was diagnosed with DIPG, or diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma, on Friday Oct. 28, 2011, indisputably the darkest experience of Janet's life. The outrage of it made her determined to find the good in the situation, and she asked God to "Put me to work!" After Jack's death, she remained determined to start working to find solutions to DIPG and incorporated Jack's Angels at the end of 2012; the Foundation began its work in 2013. Despite the fact that DIPG is responsible for the majority of brain tumor deaths in children, she had been told there were no solutions for Jack because "the numbers aren't great enough for investors." This remains the primary motivation in her advocacy work, to prioritize children's lives in our medical system in the United States.