![\"Running](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/j19vux309xf2umc3.jpg\")
<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
TAMPA, Fla. – A Bay Area family has found purpose in their journey with cancer<\/a> and a calling to help others.<\/p>\n The backstory:<\/p>\n Vincent DiTinno\u2019s parents say he started having abnormal symptoms when he was four years old.<\/p>\n “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.”<\/p>\n Meland DiTinno and her husband, Anthony, say doctors couldn’t initially figure out what was wrong, but eventually decided to do an MRI.<\/p>\n READ: A cure for cancer would deliver $185T economic windfall, report says<\/a><\/p>\n “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.<\/p>\n Vincent was admitted to the hospital and eventually diagnosed with Rhabdomyosarcoma in 2021.<\/p>\n “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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n “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.”<\/p>\n Dig deeper:<\/p>\n Melanie and Anthony DiTinno tried to find a way to cope with everything going on, while trying to remain strong for their young boys.<\/p>\n READ: New blood test detects early-stage pancreatic cancer, study suggests<\/a><\/p>\n “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.<\/p>\n She said their passion for running began with setting goals for each other as Vincent DiTinno completed every month of treatment.<\/p>\n “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’.”<\/p>\n Several years later, that piece of drywall contains a growing number of messages and milestones.<\/p>\n Vincent DiTinno completed treatment and eventually rang the cancer bell, but that didn’t mark the end of his family’s journey.<\/p>\n Melanie and Anthony DiTinno felt inspired to use their experience to help other families who were experiencing similar journeys with pediatric cancer.<\/p>\n “It was kind of like we looked at each other and said, ‘Let’s plan a 5K’, at the same time,” Melanie DiTinno stated.<\/p>\n READ: Lung cancer deaths outpace other major cancers as cases rise in young adults<\/a><\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n “The amount of research that goes to pediatric cancer is extremely small,” Anthony DiTinno said.<\/p>\n By the numbers:<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n “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.<\/p>\n What they’re saying:<\/p>\n “It feels good, really, just helping other kids with stuff that I went through,” Vincent DiTinno said.<\/p>\n At the time of Vincent DiTinno\u2019s diagnosis and throughout his treatment, Anthony DiTinno says he couldn’t see beyond the next day.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n “It just gives me a purpose and hope and makes you feel like, ‘Okay. This is why this happened to us,” Melanie DiTinno shared.<\/p>\n Melanie DiTinno says their purpose now is to help other families and help support research for pediatric cancer.<\/p>\n What’s next:<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Click here<\/a> for more information.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Source: Information came from interviews conducted with the family.<\/p>\n Tampa<\/a>Cancer<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. – A Bay Area family has found purpose in their journey with cancer and a calling…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":186340,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[1158,47,571,629,115,135,137,136,628],"class_list":{"0":"post-186339","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa","8":"tag-cancer","9":"tag-fl","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-hillsborough","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-tampa","14":"tag-tampa-headlines","15":"tag-tampa-news","16":"tag-us"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186339\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/186340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/vlcsnap-2026-03-10-17h15m04s598.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/vlcsnap-2026-03-10-17h15m48s275.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/vlcsnap-2026-03-10-17h15m58s940.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/vlcsnap-2026-03-10-17h16m18s952.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/vlcsnap-2026-03-10-17h16m37s460.jpg\")
<\/p>\n