Our Mission:

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

Retinoblastoma 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 in the USA varies widely, and curable children still die.

One Retinoblastoma World Conference:

The One Retinoblastoma 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.

Donation Designations:

When donating, you have an option to designate the funds to these 4 categories:

General Funds:

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 sometimes even 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 current patient, Mary.

One Retinoblastoma World:

Funds designated to the One Retinoblastoma World conference will go towards providing a venue and meals for our attendees as well as promotion of and further fundraising for the conference via social media. Our conferences are documented on our website as blogs, which can be found here:

To learn more about our upcoming 2024 One Rb World Conference in Honolulu, Hawaii this October, click 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:

This 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. These programs are always led by professional Child Life Specialists (CLSs) like our WE C Hope Child Life Director, Morgan Livingstone. To read more about 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 Retinoblastoma 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, all 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.

Thank You For Your Support!

With your donation, we can help meet the needs of children with retinoblastoma, their families, and adult survivors. You are aiding us in creating a bright future for all affected by childhood eye cancer and getting closer to a day in which no one suffers needlessly because of this highly curable cancer.

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