the torch Winter 2015, Issue 4 | Page 8

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