When a child is diagnosed with cancer, the focus quickly turns to treatment. What is the diagnosis? What does the treatment look like? What comes next? But for Krista Keller, the questions do not stop there. After her son Enzo’s diagnosis at four years old, she began thinking about what treatment should make possible for kids on the other side of cancer.
In Episode 59 of Game Over: c*ncer, hosts Dana Nichols and Val Solomon talk with Krista, Executive Director of Enzo and Me Pediatric Cancer Foundation, about her family’s experience, the mission that grew from it, and why research became such an important part of her work. Her story asks us to look beyond the diagnosis and think about what we are really fighting for when we invest in pediatric cancer research.
Watch Krista’s episode here: Pediatric Cancer Diagnosis: Why Parents Must Keep Asking | 59
A Child Is More Than a Diagnosis
Pediatric cancer can quickly make a child’s world about appointments, scans, medications, procedures, and treatment. But a child’s life is so much bigger than what happens in a hospital. They have birthdays to celebrate, friends to see, school to return to, and a future they have not even had the chance to imagine yet. That is why better treatment cannot only be about whether a child survives. It has to be about what that child gets to experience because they survived. For Krista, that perspective is personal. Enzo was four when he was diagnosed with Burkitt lymphoma, and even after treatment, the emotional impact has stayed with him. When a child wonders if they got cancer because they were a bad kid, it becomes clear that pediatric cancer affects much more than a child’s physical health.
Research Changes What Comes Next
Better treatment does not happen by accident. It starts with research. Every question researchers ask, every clinical trial, and every discovery has the potential to change what a future family hears after a diagnosis. The goal is not simply to have more treatments. It is to have treatments that work better, cause fewer long-term effects, and give children more of the life they deserve. That is why Krista chose research as the focus of Enzo and Me Pediatric Cancer Foundation. She could not change what happened to Enzo, but she could help support the work that might change what happens for the next child. The research happening today is connected to the treatment options families will have tomorrow.
The Emotional Side of Cancer
There is another part of pediatric cancer that deserves more attention. What happens emotionally to a child who has had cancer? Treatment can take children away from school, friends, activities, and the routines that make childhood feel normal. Families are left navigating fear and uncertainty while trying to help their children understand something that many adults struggle to understand themselves. Those experiences do not necessarily disappear when treatment ends. Better care means making room for that reality too. It means thinking about the whole child, not just the disease, and asking how we can help kids and families through treatment while also helping them build a life after it.
From One Family to Every Family
Krista started Enzo and Me while sitting beside her son’s hospital bed, asking herself what she could do when she could not fix what was happening to him. What began with that question grew into a foundation supporting pediatric cancer research for kids beyond her own family. That shift matters because progress in pediatric cancer is bigger than any one diagnosis, family, organization, or researcher. It takes people who are willing to keep asking questions, keep funding the work, and keep paying attention to what families need. Awareness can start with hearing a story, but staying engaged means continuing to learn, support research, and ask what better can look like.
Why This Conversation Matters
When Krista says, “I just want them to have their lives,” the goal of pediatric cancer research becomes easier to understand. We are not only funding research so a child can finish treatment. We are funding the possibility of birthdays outside the hospital, more time with friends, fewer long-term effects, more childhood, and more future. At Cannonball Kids’ cancer Foundation (CKc), we believe kids deserve better treatments, and getting there requires research that challenges what is possible today. Krista’s story is a reminder that this work does not stop with a diagnosis or with one month of awareness. It takes continued attention, investment, and action to help create a future where more kids can simply have their lives.
Listen to Krista’s episode of Game Over: c*ncer to hear her family’s story, the mission behind Enzo and Me Pediatric Cancer Foundation, and what she hopes research can make possible for the kids who come next.
Know a researcher, advocate, survivor, or family whose story needs to be shared? Email us at info@cannonballkidscancer.org to nominate a guest!
