Fulfilling a Promise
The Love Is The Cure Foundation is dedicated to serving the pediatric cancer community.
Our story originates with a little boy named Inigo. His cancer diagnosis and the journey he traveled afterward is what began this foundation. Regardless of our work with the foundation, Inigo and the life that he lived was wonderful and held so much meaning and purpose. The Love Is The Cure Foundation is honoring a promise to Inigo that we would continue to live this journey with purpose. This foundation is dedicated to Inigo's perseverance, his desire to live well even through cancer, and his will to help others. No child should be saddled with cancer and its effects. Inigo gave us a course of action by living through cancer the way that he did, with faith, grace, fight, laughter, and love.
Inigo's Story is Our Story
In September of 2021, at 9 years old, Inigo Vega was diagnosed with cancer. Inigo was diagnosed with a high-risk metastatic Medulloblastoma, which is a type of brain tumor.
From MRI imaging, and initial diagnosis Inigo, Lyndell, and I were taken from the ED directly to the ICU to wait for a surgical suite. As soon as one became available, Inigo underwent a tumor resection. Everything seemed to go well with the surgery. By the next day, Inigo was laughing and joking with us and the hospital staff. Two days after brain surgery Inigo fell into Posterior Fossa Syndrome. This meant he stopped talking, could not walk, and his hands and arms stopped working, and he could not respond to basic commands. It seemed as though he had become trapped inside his body.
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After about three weeks in the ICU, we were moved to the Neuro-Oncology floor of Boston Children’s Hospital. Inigo, Lyndell, and I would live there for about 3 1/2 months. During those 3 1/2 months Inigo would travel daily over to Brigham and Women's Hospital to have radiation therapy.
Inigo completed his course of radiation around Thanksgiving of 2021. Shortly thereafter, the three of us were transferred to Spaulding Rehabilitation in Charlestown. Inigo spent the next four weeks doing daily 4-6 hour intensive therapies.
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On December 28th, Inigo was transferred back to Boston Children's Hospital and into the ICU once again, where Inigo began intensive IV chemotherapy. This initial IV chemotherapy course lasted for a little over six months and ended in July 2022.
In September 2022 after a follow-up MRI more cancer was found on Inigo's spine. Because of this new finding, Inigo started a new course of chemotherapy.
As some of you know Love Is The Cure was our family motto during this journey. We have lived that motto every day since Inigo's diagnosis. Love is the Cure is a statement of faith for us. It is our compass and our strength.
We made a decision that we would live this experience without it destroying us. Some days that agreement was a spoken one. And some days that agreement was unspoken. But we knew that whatever happened on this journey, losing hope was never an option. We continued to assure and promise Inigo of his positive impact on others through his fight for life. Inigo's ten short years of life have a purpose. Inigo knew that Love is the Cure as a statement of faith meant that no matter how his journey ended, everything would ultimately be all right.
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On May 20th, 2023, 20 months after Inigo was first diagnosed he succumbed to brain cancer and passed away at Boston Children’s Hospital.
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One of the purposes of the Love Is The Cure Foundation is to carry on the spirit of never losing hope. It is the fulfillment of a promise given to a little boy. It is a promise that was owed to Inigo. It is a purpose that now will go on to help other children with cancer and their parents.