After mom’s diagnosis, Greenstone
girls give back to Baylor
Caroline Greenstone was just 8 years old when her dad,
David, had to share some bad news. Her mother had cancer.
Within weeks, he had more bad news. His own mother was also
diagnosed with cancer.
“Caroline didn’t know what was
going to happen, and it felt out of control for her,” said David, a trial attorney and one of the founding members
of Simon Greenstone Panatier Bartlett,
PC. His wife, Joanna, had transitional
cell carcinoma, a type of bladder cancer, and began treatment at Baylor
University Medical Center at Dallas.
His mother, Karen Stern, was diagnosed with myelofibrosis, a type of
blood cancer that causes scarring in the
bones. She receives care at another
hospital.
“Caroline wanted to know: What
can we do to help mommy? What can we do to help other people
that are dealing with this type of thing? How can we fight back?”
David said.
She fought back by forming the Cancer Fighters Club with her
little sister, Olivia, then 5. They formed the club to raise money
to help their mother, grandmother and others going through cancer. “This organization started as a way for her to try to get some
control,” said David, who helped his girls establish the Cancer
Fighters Club as an official fund through the Dallas Jewish
Community Foundation.
The Cancer Fighters Club hosts special fundraising events, and
the Greenstone girls choose where the money goes. They’ve selected
charities such as American Cancer Society and Myeloproliferative
Research Foundation. “Every time we’ve done a fundraiser, we’ve
given to Baylor,” David said. “That’s important to us because it
made such a difference in our lives.” After a surgery and intense
chemotherapy at