Fort Collins Resident Raises Over $12,000 for Childhood Cancer Research

Tim Anderson is a Fort Collins resident, a fitness trainer, and a fundraising champion. Earlier this month, he worked out for over two hours and raised over $12,000 for the StellaStrong Fund, a foundation that helps fund childhood cancer research.

"Pediatric cancer tugs at my heart more than anything," said Anderson, the owner of Valor Elite Training, in our "Tuned In to NoCo" interview. "[The fundraiser] was a lot of hard work. It was about two and a half hours straight of exercise, but...my little bit of suffering and pain is nothing compared to what these families have to go through with kiddos fighting cancer."

Marissa and Andrew Beard started the StellaStrong Fund after their daughter, Stella, passed away from a rare pediatric brain cancer called Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG) in 2017.

"She was three years old when she passed away and we just kind of wanted to do something to keep her memory alive," said Marissa. "It's hard when you lose babies, especially when they're that little...[but] people really come together and support one another."

Currently, only 4% of government funding goes towards childhood cancer research. The StellaStrong Fund hopes to change that with the help of their partner organization, The Olivia Caldwell Foundation (TOFC).

"So far, we've contributed $525,000 to pediatric cancer research," said Katie Caldwell-Burchett, who started TOFC after losing her daughter Olivia to cancer in 2013. "Just a couple years ago, we got the news that they now have a cure for the specific type of cancer that killed Olivia. That came from our funding."

As for Anderson, he plans to host even more fitness fundraisers in the future.

"My ultimate goal would be to have as many trainers in Colorado and Wyoming to get on board with this," he said. "If we get a couple hundred trainers all doing this together, I think we could really make a huge impact on pediatric cancer."

Learn more about Anderson's fundraiser, the StellaStrong Fund, and The Olivia Caldwell Foundation by listening to the full "Tuned In to NoCo" interview with Katie Caldwell-Burchett, Marissa Beard, and Tim Anderson below.