TAMPA, Fla. – A Bay Area family has found purpose in their journey with cancer and a calling to help others.
The backstory:
Vincent DiTinno’s parents say he started having abnormal symptoms when he was four years old.
“You’d go to bed. An hour later, he would just wake up and in the night, out of nowhere, screaming,” Vincent’s mother, Melanie DiTinno, said. “It seemed like night terrors.”
Meland DiTinno and her husband, Anthony, say doctors couldn’t initially figure out what was wrong, but eventually decided to do an MRI.
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“They said he had a soft tissue tumor, ‘We don’t know what it is, we’ve got to go in through it and have it biopsied,” Anthony DiTinno said.
Vincent was admitted to the hospital and eventually diagnosed with Rhabdomyosarcoma in 2021.
“Eighteen months of chemo for Vincent,” Anthony DiTinno explained. “Within that, we had six weeks of radiation, where we went to Jacksonville and got a place and stayed in Jacksonville.
The diagnosis flipped the entire family’s world upside down. Vincent and his parents spent eight to nine hours a day in the hospital, while his brother, Corey, who was five years old at the time, had to be homeschooled.
“Corey was, he was kind of that shining star when we’d come home after a long day,” Anthony DiTinno said. “He’s the first one you see smiling, giving you a big hug.”
Dig deeper:
Melanie and Anthony DiTinno tried to find a way to cope with everything going on, while trying to remain strong for their young boys.
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“We would try and carve about 30 minutes to an hour out for ourselves and go on separate runs throughout our neighborhood,” Melanie DiTinno said.
She said their passion for running began with setting goals for each other as Vincent DiTinno completed every month of treatment.
“We had this piece of wood, and that sat in our garage, and every time one of us came back from our runs, we would write a little motivational saying that came up when we ran,” Melanie DiTinno said. “Whether it was ‘Vincent Strong’, or ‘Thank God for a great day’.”
Several years later, that piece of drywall contains a growing number of messages and milestones.
Vincent DiTinno completed treatment and eventually rang the cancer bell, but that didn’t mark the end of his family’s journey.
Melanie and Anthony DiTinno felt inspired to use their experience to help other families who were experiencing similar journeys with pediatric cancer.
“It was kind of like we looked at each other and said, ‘Let’s plan a 5K’, at the same time,” Melanie DiTinno stated.
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This year will mark the 4th annual National Pediatric Cancer Foundation Challenge, which consists of a 5k run/walk and stair climb through Raymond James Stadium.
“The amount of research that goes to pediatric cancer is extremely small,” Anthony DiTinno said.
By the numbers:
The 5k course runs through the stadium, in addition to a 4,300-step stair climb to represent the 43 children who are diagnosed with cancer every day.
“So, it’s just to kind of stress your body a little bit more and maybe even think, you know, this is 25-30 minutes out of my day, these kids go through it for 18 months,” Anthony DiTinno shared.
What they’re saying:
“It feels good, really, just helping other kids with stuff that I went through,” Vincent DiTinno said.
At the time of Vincent DiTinno’s diagnosis and throughout his treatment, Anthony DiTinno says he couldn’t see beyond the next day.
As Vincent DiTinno continues to hit milestones and the annual 5k event grows each year, his parents say they’ve learned that the reason for this experience was bigger than themselves.
“It just gives me a purpose and hope and makes you feel like, ‘Okay. This is why this happened to us,” Melanie DiTinno shared.
Melanie DiTinno says their purpose now is to help other families and help support research for pediatric cancer.
What’s next:
The Challenge Tampa 5k and stair climb for the National Pediatric Cancer Foundation is on March 28 at 9 a.m. at Raymond James Stadium.
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The Source: Information came from interviews conducted with the family.