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About World Eye Cancer Hope

World Eye Cancer Hope (WE C Hope) is a leading non-profit organization in the USA and internationally uniquely dedicated to bringing effective care to children with retinoblastoma, survivors, and their families, wherever they live and whatever their circumstances may be.

What is Retinoblastoma?

Retinoblastoma (Rb) is a highly curable eye cancer of infancy and early childhood; however, survival rates vary dramatically between developed and developing countries. Early diagnosis, access to specialist care, and family support varies widely, and curable children still die. More than 96% of children survive in the developed world, but many lose one or both eyes and precious sight due to late diagnosis and sub-optimal care.

The most common signs of Rb are a white glow in the pupil known as leukocoria, crossed eyes (strabismus), and red and swollen eyes. If you see any of these signs in a child, please seek immediate medical attention.

Our Mission

WE C Hope is committed to raising awareness and education around early diagnosis of retinoblastoma. We advocate for timely access to treatment, evidence-based care, and tailored psychosocial support for affected children, adult survivors, their families, and healthcare providers around the world.

We achieve this by:

Educating the public and healthcare workers about retinoblastoma and second primary cancers to achieve early detection, timely diagnosis, and rapid referral to specialist care.
Empowering family support programs that provide patients, families, and survivors a space to connect through online communities, events, and the One Retinoblastoma World conference.
Enabling families, survivors, researchers, the global eye care and cancer communities, the imaging industry, and policymakers to develop sustainable, high-quality, evidence-based, patient-centered care.

How Your Support Helps

Your support helps save lives and sight by bringing early diagnosis, life-saving treatment, and critical family support to children with retinoblastoma and survivors worldwide.

WE C Hope works to close the gap in access to care by educating healthcare providers, strengthening medical systems, and supporting families through every stage of the journey.

Together, we can build a future where no child dies from retinoblastoma and no survivor is lost to preventable second cancers.

Donation Designations

When donating, you have an option to designate funds to any of these four categories:

GENERAL FUND:

Donating to our organization's General Fund will go where it is needed most; whether that is organizing social events for our families to connect, conferences to spread awareness and knowledge of retinoblastoma, child life programs to help children on their cancer journey, or other ways we aid those affected by retinoblastoma.

FAMILY & SURVIVOR SUPPORT:

These funds are used only for funding our family weekends and days all over the USA. These events are extremely important in bringing families, patients, and medical professionals together to form a community in different regions. Our most recent family events are documented on our website as blogs, which can be found here:

An Rb dad holds his 4 year old daughter in one arm and a microphone in the other has he shares his family's story. He is sporting a black long sleeve shirt, a backwards white cap, and a fun pair of sunglasses that are shaped like pineapples. His daughter is in a white long sleeve with giraffe print pants and pig tails in her hair.

Photo Caption: At our 2023 D.C. Family Weekend, Rb dad Philip Banks shared his family's retinoblastoma story at the event's welcome dinner alongside his daughter and survivor, Mary.

ONE RETINOBLASTOMA WORLD:

The One Retinoblastoma World (One Rb World) conference engages eye and cancer specialists, researchers, and parent and survivor advocates from around the world to pursue the best possible care for all children, survivors, and their families. This fully interactive meeting encourages collaborative effort among the multi-disciplinary delegation, building a solid foundation to support rigorous international multi-center research. This will ultimately lead to greater knowledge and scientific evidence, thereby improving survival, vision outcomes, and psychosocial care.

Our previous conferences are documented on our website as blogs, which can be found here:

Approximately fifty people stand and sit posing for a group photo in the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts while smiling and laughing on the final day of our family weekend.

Photo Caption: Our retinoblastoma families gather at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts during our March 2023 Washington D.C. Rb Family Weekend.

LISA HESTER MEMORIAL CHILD LIFE FUND:

Child Life is a form of psychosocial care geared towards reducing the stress of patients and families while they are undergoing treatment. An example of this is medical play: a safe way for children to familiarize themselves with medical materials, enabling them to gain mastery over their own medical experiences while having fun.

Child Life programming is meant to help children understand their experience with eye cancer, including emotional responses, medical procedures, and living with a special eye. To read more about WE C Hope's Certified Child Life Specialist (CCLS), Morgan Livingstone, and Child Life programming, click here.

Lisa Hester was a member of the WE C Hope USA Board of Directors, and mom to a bilateral Rb survivor, Elijah. She attended the 2017 One Retinoblastoma World Conference and immediately endeared herself to our team. Since then, her light and passion for bettering the Rb community has touched families, not only in the United States but also around the world. Lisa worked tirelessly to incorporate Child Life techniques into her son's appointments, exams under anesthesia, and life as an Rb survivor.

Lisa tragically passed away in July of 2024 and is survived by her husband, her son Elijah, and seven additional children. WE C Hope honors her memory and passion for Child Life through this fundraiser. Lisa and the Hester family will always be a part of the World Eye Cancer Hope family.

From left to right, Lisa, Marissa, and Kristen stand arm-in-arm and smile at the camera in their matching white One Retinoblastoma World shirts.

Photo Caption: From left to right, Lisa Hester, Marissa Gonzalez, and Kristen Small, board-members of WE C Hope USA, don matching One Retinoblastoma World shirts at the fifth-annual Southern California Retinoblastoma Family Day in November 2022.

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Thank You For Your Support!