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Kian Amelio Munoz was born on December 18th, 2018 and is a special soul to all who have met him. After a joyous first three months of life, Kian was diagnosed with a Malignant Rhabdoid Tumor (MRT) on his right kidney. Kian underwent eight rounds of chemo therapy and 14 days of radiation in an effort to achieve cure. After almost one year of clean scans, Kian relapsed and four months later on January 2nd, 2021 at 7:02PM, Kian, surrounded by loved ones and in the arms of his parents, took his last breath.
MRT is a rare aggressive form of cancer that has an extremely poor cure rate. We didn’t know this at the time, but only 25 to 30 children are diagnosed a year and most children that are diagnosed in early infancy have a life expectancy of a mere six to eight months from diagnosis. In the cases of rare tumors, research to support medical advancements are largely generated by individual generosity. Giving to this cause will be used to support the efforts of Dr. Mullen’s Renal Research Fund. This fund will direct donations for research into the disease that affected Kian and is the most direct way you can make an impact.
Despite Kian’s diagnosis and relapse, he was always full of so much light and his little dino buddy, who he named Rawr, was with him every step of the way – particularly during relapse. Together they roared (or as Kian would say Rawr’d!) against this awful disease every single day. Kian may have taken his last breaths earth-side, but his battle against this disease is far from over. We will continue to rally and rawr against this until the statistics are in our favor.