I have a 3-year-old son who's obsessed with dragons, a mom who's a cancer survivor, and I've basically been fired up to run races since the day I was born. So what better way to run my first half marathon than by raising money for cancer research through The Dragon Master Foundation's Team Fired Up?
The woman who started Dragon Master had a son, who – just like mine – loved dragons.
"David was just 16 years old when he was diagnosed with cancer. He was funny, quirky, intelligent, kind, and adored by all who encountered him throughout his life. David dreamed of becoming a chef, the kind of person that brings people together to share each other’s company... After four hospitals, a clinical trial, and countless prayers, we couldn’t save David. He passed away after a 20-month battle. As our family navigated through this journey with numerous doctors and countless questions, we discovered a severe frustration in the cancer research community- a lack of resources to share medical research data between doctors and researchers.
Clinical trial results take time, but time is limited in moments like these. Hoping to turn the loss of David into his legacy, we set forth to bridge the gap between isolated medical processes and real-time clinical research data. From this, the Dragon Master Initiative was born- a platform that would help solve the riddle of cancer through streamlined data sharing between researchers and institutions.
The Dragon Master Initiative seeks to expand CAVATICA, a free research tool that enables doctors and scientists to instantly share, search and analyze patient data. Expanding this tool will allow researchers to use big data to identify patterns and further their research to uncover cures for cancer more quickly.
Cancer is often referred to as a beast, and our David had always loved dragons, so using a dragon as part of the imagery felt like a good fit. However, David loved dragons, so we wanted to have a name that would honor that love. We also thought that control of disease is the first step toward curing, so the term “master” seemed like a natural way to express that control."
