Live Like John: A Beverly Mother's Mission to Raise Awareness of Pediatric Brain Tumors

It’s going on three years since since 15-year-old John McNicholas died of a malignant brain tumor. His death came just 10 months after he woke up with a terrible headache early one morning.

John, the 6-foot-2 baseball loving Saint Rita student, was suddenly diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor that would over the next several months take away his ability to walk and talk and ultimately take his life.

For his family, the death of their son was just the start of a journey that is still being traveled today. A quest to find answers where they didn’t have any, and provide not just hope but real medical options to families facing the same diagnosis.

John’s mother Amy McNicholas says the mission of the the John McNicholas Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation is to raise awareness of the disease while also providing research funding to treatment methods that will not only increase survival rates, but improve the quality of life of patients.

“We want to inspire, enrage and engage people to participate,” McNicholas said.

The Beverly family has seen consistent and overwhelming support from their friends and neighbors over the past several years. The foundation hosts an annual softball tournament in June and an awareness drive every May.This year half of the proceeds of the Beverly Hills Turkey Trot will go toward the foundation. 

Find more information on how to register for the neighborhood run and walk to be held on Nov. 30.

When her son was first diagnosed McNicholas was shocked at the lack of information about his disease. It became her full time job to research various treatment options and what she found was disheartening.

Advancements in treatment have been slow, and most options leave patients severely impacted.

“Science failed our son,” McNicholas said. “Most [who are diagnosed] are probably not going to survive and if they do their lives are going to be significantly compromised.”

So her work began. The foundation plans to award a $200,000 research grant in January.

“We are really trying to focus on the scientists that are doing what works and really understand the human cost of the care,” McNicholas said.

She cites leukemia as an example of what happens when real research and funding are focused on a disease. Decades ago the disease was often a death sentence, now the survival rates continue to drastically improve.

The support of her neighbors has made not only the mission of the foundation possible, but has allowed her son’s memory to be celebrated.

“I feel so lucky to be in this community, they've just continued to stay committed to this family and the foundation,” McNicholas said.

John loved Beverly too. Amy says that he would talk about plans to raise his own family here one day, in the house he grew up in.

“He was a big kid, he was funny and charming and kind of an old soul,” she said. “He was just more then his disease.”

And that is where the foundation’s motto “Live Like John” was born.

Amy went back to school after her son’s death and is studying clinical psychology. She hopes to be able to help other families through the grieving process. Her work with the foundation will continue, but she hopes that it is work that will ultimately reach its goal.