Amber Larkin

Pediatric brain cancer claimed the life of Amber Larkin’s 8-year-old son Noah in 2012. The aggressive cancer – Medulloblastoma – had interrupted the boy’s childhood in 2009. The following year Amber started the Noah’s Light Foundation, with a mission that was at once ambitious and inspiring: To find a cure for pediatric brain cancer by supporting visionary doctors in pediatric oncology, funding new research in the field, raising awareness of our cause, and enriching the lives of the brave children struggling with this disease.

Now, here’s the mission within the mission: Amber is striving to lead the development of a protocol that will lead to a cure for brain cancer, using a two-part approach. First, a new surgical technique places a catheter in the fourth ventricle of the brain. Then the patient’s natural killer cells, which have been trained to find and fight cancer cells, are administered through the catheter to eliminate the tumor cell by cell. Phase I of the clinical trial is currently being evaluated by the FDA and is expected to be approved very soon.