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Hollis Doherty
Two people from Mammoth are trying to bring awareness to a terrible disease that is little known and effecting a local family at this time. DIPG or Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma is a rare form of cancer. It is a tumor on the brain stem which effects the central nervous system. It generally affects children with the average age of diagnosis being six years old. There is no cure and the average life expectancy after diagnosis is one year.
Imagine your child or grandchild being diagnosed with DIPG and being told there is no cure and your son, daughter, grandchild probably only has one year left to live. How heartbreaking! What can you do? Then when you do research about the disease you find out that very little efforts are being made to find a cure because the disease is so rare. Even though Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon lost his daughter Karen to DIPG in 1962, protocols for treatment and life expectancies have not changed during all those years.
DIPG effects only 350 people per year. Because it is so rare the big pharmaceutical companies and medical research companies are not doing much to look for a cure or new drugs to treat it with and prolong lives. Funding for cancer research is spent more on other cancers with little funding going to researching DIPG. There is little to no government funding for meaningful research. This is a travesty!
Terry and Cathy Adams of Mammoth want to make people aware of DIPG and of the child Hollis Doherty who is battling for his life. Hollis is the grandson of Clarence and Donna Horn of San Manuel. Clarence is the Pastor of the Assembly of God Church in San Manuel. Terry and Cathy are members of the San Manuel Assembly of God. Hollis is the son of Shane and Shawnee Doherty who are doing their best to prolong Hollis’ life and let him live as normal a life as possible. You may have seen the fund-raising canisters in some of the local businesses like La Casita, Mel’s, Romo’s and Salt & Pepper in San Manuel and La Casita and Carniceria Rancheros in Mammoth that are collecting funds for Hollis to help defer his medical costs which are enormous.
Hollis was diagnosed with DIPG on March 24, 2016 at the Phoenix Children’s Hospital. He is seven years old. As the disease progresses, the child is robbed of their motor functions which results in partial paralysis, loss of voice, sight and eventually their ability to eat and breathe. He is currently having to travel to Germany once a month to undergo Immunotherapy because no other treatment is available in the United States. The leading research on the disease is being done in Cologne, Germany. This treatment must be paid out of pocket and is very expensive. Because the health insurance companies consider the treatments experimental they do not cover any of the cost. Then there are the expenses of plane flights, hotels and food.
“Why do we have to send families to Germany when we are the most blessed nation in the world?” asked Terry Adams. The Adams hope to make people more aware of DIPG, not just for Hollis but for all the children that are diagnosed with the disease and their families. It is hoped that more awareness will lead to more funding for research and maybe one day finding a cure for this terrible disease.
“We along with Hollis’ family would like to thank the businesses that allowed the canisters and gave donations and everyone that has donated as well as those that have offered prayers for Hollis,” Adams said. “Every little bit helps.”
They would also like everyone to know that Hollis has a Go Fund Me accoun. He is also on Facebook. Please donate if you can and send prayers. Give Hope for Hollis!
John Hernandez lives in Oracle. He is retired and enjoys writing and traveling. He is active in the Oracle Historical Society. He covers numerous public events, researches historical features and writes business/artist profiles.
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