Cooking for Cancer: A Mother's Dedication to Nourish Her Child Helps Hundreds
Inspiration comes in many forms. An act of beauty can inspire a song. An injustice can inspire a legal career. For Danielle Navidi, inspiration for a new career came from a simple need: to find something her 11-year-old son, Fabien, would eat during his treatment for Hodgkin’s lymphoma at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital.
Today, Fabien is a healthy college junior, and Danielle directs a program on cancer nutrition called “Cooking for Cancer” at MedStar Georgetown. She has even authored a recipe book filled with cancer-fighting foods that are appetizing to children whose appetites and preferences are continually evolving because of their treatments.
Mother’s Intuition Leads to Accurate Brain Tumor Diagnosis
While most parents believe their children are extraordinary, Jessica Lovelace and her husband, Chris Clarke, have scientific proof. Their daughter, Kyla, is one of the very few children in the United States diagnosed each year with a rare brain tumor lodged in an even rarer —and dangerous — location.
Fortunately, Jessica and Chris’ determination to “get the best” for Kyla led them to MedStar Georgetown where the right diagnosis and surgery stopped this dangerous brain tumor from destroying the little girl’s life.
It all started with a series of seemingly random events. Kyla was born with torticollis — a muscle imbalance in the neck — which was corrected using gentle exercises. But when she was three, her mother noticed that Kyla was having some difficulty with her balance, not being able to stand on one foot and getting extremely dizzy after only one or two twirls.
