Meet Eli! He is five years old and battled Embryonal Tumor with Multilayered Rosettes.

When Eli was three, he fell on Christmas Eve and was diagnosed with a mild concussion. A week later, he was still struggling, resulting in a hospital trip and a CT scan. His family then heard what no family wanted to hear; Eli had a large mass on his frontal lobe. Two days later, he had his first craniotomy, where they found a rare and aggressive grade-4 tumor. He underwent six rounds of chemotherapy, three of which were high-dose with stem cell transplant, and six long months of hospital stays.

Eli rang the bell in July 2021. He has since received treatment for some side effects from the chemotherapy and had his second craniotomy in December 2021 to remove a mass for testing. So far, his MRIs have shown no changes.

Eli is full of energy and loves to laugh. You can always count on him to brighten a dark day with his smile. If Eli isn’t running around acting like one of his many favorite Marvel characters, you can find him singing and dancing.

Eli was recently in our 2022 St. Petersburg Fashion Funds the Cure event and walked the runway during his Dream Walk as a Spider-Man!