Trisha Danze, and her husband, Jeff founded Thea's Star of Hope after their daughter was diagnosed with a brain tumor at 4 months old.
A history/education major at Rowan University, running a non-profit was never on her radar. After graduation, Thea spent 10 years in the retail industry, working in the field and buying offices.
But, when Thea was born, that life took a sharp left turn. Now she was thrust into a world of surgeries, procedures, doctor and therapy appointments and chemo. Trisha's passion for helping kids with brain tumors was intensified by every visit to the hospital or doctor's appointment and seeing the suffering that so many of these kids endure.
Now ten, Thea is doing well, despite being on treatment most of her life and suffering many complications, setbacks and disabilities related to surgeries and chemotherapies. The Danzes established TSOH to fund research for more targeted, less toxic treatments for children with brain tumors.
To date, they have donated over $150,000 to various research programs through the Children’s Brain Tumor Tissue Consortium, and have just made a 3 year funding commitment for a clinical trial that will test a novel therapy for children with BRAF positive low grade gliomas.
In addition, Thea’s Star of Hope has been proud to work with the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation on the Starfolio notebooks for parents of newly diagnosed children. Through their efforts, hundreds of children will have the opportunity for more effective, less toxic treatments and a chance to live, not just survive.