Raising Awareness for Childhood Cancer With the San Francisco Giants

On a sunny day at Oracle Park, the crowd roared in support as the scoreboard displayed the words “Fight Against Pediatric Cancer” during the San Francisco Giants’ Pediatric Cancer Awareness Day. On the field, childhood cancer patients stood next to the players during the national anthem. Three of them were patients at Stanford Medicine Children’s Health.

Samara Castro, Benjamin Floriano, and Rhett Napp came with their families, all decked out in orange to enjoy the game.

“We are just so appreciative of this opportunity,” says Kate Napp, Rhett’s mom. “We were hoping to go last year for the same event, but he got sick right before the game, so we had to cancel. It was a huge setback for us because it was something we had been looking forward to. So, this year, it feels like things are better for us.”

Rhett was diagnosed with B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia more than a year ago. He spent a lot of time in the hospital going through treatment. As a huge Giants fan, Rhett’s favorite sport to play is baseball. Not only was he invited to this game, he received more good news recently: he can go back to playing contact sports again.

The Giants host this awareness day to not only to educate the crowd by sharing stories of young cancer patients, but also show support for research and care for kids with cancer. For patients like Samara, Benjamin, and Rhett, it was a chance to get back to some sense of normalcy and enjoy an outing with their families, which means so much more given the journeys they’ve been on.

“We’re entering into long-term maintenance, which is the home stretch as far as baseball analogies go,” Katie adds. “Being able to do these kinds of things, like family events, is a big deal for us.”