Ryan Shuman was a senior athlete from Eden Prairie who lost his battle on December 1, 2006 (just 11 days shy of his 18th birthday) after a 29 month fight against a rare childhood cancer called Rhabdomyosarcoma.
During Ryan's 29 month fight, he became a strong advocate for the fight against childhood cancer and it was his goal to help raise awareness, improve the quality of life for children with cancer, and most important, find a cure!
The Ryan Shuman Foundation, Inc. is a Not For Profit 501(c)(3) organization that is dedicated to raising funds to help children's wishes come true through Make-A-Wish of Minnesota as well as helping raise money for the Children's Cancer Research Fund.
In addition to these two great causes, the foundation also funds the Ryan Shuman Determination Award and Scholarship that is awarded to a graduating senior boy and girl high school hockey player at Eden Prairie High School.
Childhood Cancer Statistics:
Nearly 30% of U.S. population is under the age of 20. In this age group:
- Approximately 12,400 are diagnosed with cancer each year.
- In 1998, about 2500 died of cancer.
- About one in 300 boys and one in 333 girls will develop cancer before the age of 20. (The distribution of boys and girls diagnosed varies by type of childhood cancer.)
- The incidence, or frequency that cancer is diagnosed, has risen since the 1970s for some types of childhood cancer, but rates have been fairly stable in more recent years
We need to find a cure NOW before another parent has to hear the words "your child has cancer"!
This foundations goal is simple - Continue what Ryan started!
