Meet Courageous Parents Network’s first class of Parent Champions, joining us to amplify the voice of parents as advocates of pediatric palliative care, sharers of the lived family experience, and representatives of Courageous Parents Network.

Through this program, CPN is leveraging our existing expertise in championing pediatric palliative care to healthcare providers and patient organizations to bring palliative-informed, family perspectives to more families, clinicians, and patient organizations nationwide. Our Parent Champions share CPN’s mission to empower and orient parents and others caring for children with serious illness and medical conditions.

CPN began soliciting for applications in summer 2023 and received 24 from across the country. After a rigorous schedule of interviews, 6 Parent Champions were selected representing different diseases and geographic locations and include both bereaved parents and those still caring for their child.

Click here to see a full-spread magazine featuring each of the Champions, their children and why they are advocates for pediatric palliative care.

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Courageous Parents Network is grateful to our funders who have helped make the Parent Champion program possible.

 With a commitment toward building capacity within the rare disease community and improving people’s lives through science, Sanofi stepped forward as lead funder providing CPN with the opportunity to build the structure and curriculum for the program and select our Parent Champions.

Additional funding came from the Kanarek Family Foundation. Robin and Joseph Kanarek founded the Kanarek Family Foundation to honor the memory of their son, David, who lost his life to leukemia at the age of 15. The mission of the foundation is to improve the quality of life for those affected by cancer and other serious conditions through the promotion, education, and integration of palliative and supportive care into all areas of healthcare.