2015 Harvest of Hope Recipients

Glenn Family

GLENN FAMILY: Patricia and Kelly Glenn are the proud parents of triplet 4 year-old boys – Edison,
George and Parker – and Kelly’s beautiful daughter from a previous marriage, Olivia. Edison was born
with severe cerebral palsy and epilepsy, and uses a wheelchair. During his short life, Edison has had
many visits to and hospitalizations at Primary Children’s Hospital. Edison’s identical twin, George,
displayed concerning behaviors of speech delays, both George and Edison were eventually diagnosed
with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Patricia is involved in Edison’s speech therapy, physical therapy,
occupational therapy, botox and phenol injections, and now ABA therapy for George (10+ hours a
week). Parker, fortunately, is thriving. Due to their boys’ medical issues and needs, they attend three
different schools at three different times. Life for this family is incredibly stressful and busy.
To complicate matters, in January 2015, Patricia was diagnosed with
double negative HER2 positive, poorly differentiated (grade 3)
invasive ductal carcinoma, after a lump in her breast that had been
growing since June 2014 was misdiagnosed as a hematoma. Due to her diagnosis, she has a very high risk of breast cancer, ovarian cancer and melanoma. She recently endured a double mastectomy and is currently undergoing intensive chemotherapy. She is on round 15 with three more rough rounds of chemo to go. Once her body recovers, she will undergo at least an additional 20 rounds of chemotherapy. As Patricia recently said, “We will survive, I know, but we need your help. Please keep us in your prayers. Life is still beautiful despite the scars.”

Josh Schiffman

DR. SCHIFFMAN serves as the Medical Director for the High Risk Pediatric
Cancer Clinic at the University of Utah, where he cares for children and families
with inherited risk for cancer. Dr. Schiffman's research focuses on the
development of childhood cancer and he runs a translational genomics
laboratory to identify which children are at risk for cancer and why. 

Dr. Schiffman works closely with epidemiologists, population scientists, and molecular biologists to try to answer this question.Most recently, Dr. Schiffman has recognized the power of comparative oncology to advance the field of cancer research. The Schiffman Lab is now actively involved in comparing the genomics and functional biology of different species across the animal kingdom (including elephants!) and using this information to guide cancer research. Dr. Schiffman is working hard to use genomic technology to personalize the delivery of care to children and families with cancer, both in our community and around the globe. 100% of every donation made to Schiffman Labs will go directly to research.