Pediatric Cancer Fundraiser Held In Honor Of Arlington Teenager

ARLINGTON, VA — Almost two years after the loss of their son and brother, an Arlington family is staying busy increasing awareness of pediatric cancer and raising funds for research into a cure.

Michele Fleming, together with her family and supporters, are holding lemonade stands in the area to bring attention to the cancer that her son Nathan Fleming, a student at Washington-Liberty High School in Arlington, was diagnosed with in 2018 just after his 17th birthday. The cancer, alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma, is a highly aggressive soft-tissue cancer.

A year later, Nathan died a week after his 18th birthday in September 2019.

“It’s really a horrible disease,” Fleming said Saturday at the table she and her other son Spencer set up outside the Cherrydale Safeway where they were inviting community members to join the fight against pediatric cancer. “So that’s why I’m very passionate about this.”

"Nathan's unbelievable strength, kindness, and unwavering fortitude and positivity even in the darkest days inspire me everyday to do what I can to help other kids win their battle, with Nathan leading the charge," Fleming told Patch.

Nathan’s family is partnering with Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation, a national organization named after the frontyard lemonade stand of 4-year-old Alexandra “Alex” Scott, who was fighting cancer and wanted to raise money to find cures for all children with cancer. Since Alex died at the age of 8, the foundation bearing her name has evolved into a national fundraising movement.

Fleming is working to raise money for doctors at the Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center who are focusing on finding a cure for alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma, a soft tissue type of cancer that forms in muscle cells.

“All the funds that we raise with all the events we do will go to the Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center,” she said.

The researchers at Georgetown are targeting the fusion protein that causes the cancer, and the research has shown promising results in the lab and could lead to new targeted drug therapies for rhabdomyosarcoma, the most common childhood sarcoma.

The family is gearing up for a special virtual event in September, The Million Mile 2021, which is the biggest pediatric cancer awareness event of the year. Participants in the month-long event can walk, run and cycle to raise money that funds research to find better treatments and more cures for children battling cancer.

Established in Nathan's honor, Nathan's Cancer Slayers will be raising money for the doctors at the Georgetown Lombardi cancer center focusing on finding a cure for rhabdomyosarcoma.

In 2020, Nathan's Cancer Slayers raised more than $67,000, and the family is hoping to match or even surpass that total in 2021.

"Nathan was a really wonderful, compassionate person. He was an amazing brother," said Spencer Fleming, Nathan's older brother who left college in 2018 to help take care of his brother after the cancer diagnosis.

"We would do everything together," Spencer Fleming said. "It was a huge shock when he got cancer because he was always super-healthy. I would get colds at all times of the year, but he would never get colds."

Throughout the cancer treatment, which was extremely painful at times, Nathan "had an amazing attitude. He was positive the whole way through," his brother said.

During these treatments, Nathan was able to continue his studies at home and graduated from high school in the spring of 2019.

Researchers at the Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, led by Nathan’s oncologist, Dr. Jeffrey Toretsky, and Dr. Aykut Uren, are trying to find more advanced treatments for rhabdomyosarcoma.

Because of the aggressiveness of the cancer, it will adapt to basic medicines that have been used on patients, including the treatments used on Nathan. During his treatment, Nathan would show signs of improvement, only to have the cancer return in a more aggressive form because it had adapted to the treatment.

"There's just not enough money going to it," Spencer Fleming said.

The Flemings held a lemonade stand earlier this summer at the Lee-Harrison shopping center in Arlington to raise awareness about the pediatric cancer. At Saturday's event in Cherrydale, the family raised about $1,560 from Safeway customer donations.

The family will be holding its next lemonade stand on Saturday, July 31 at the Preservation Biscuit Company in Falls Church, just off Lee Highway and across from the historic Falls Church Episcopal Church.

The Fleming family said they would be thrilled for members of the public to join Nathan's team, Nathan's Cancer Slayers, for the Million Mile Event to help fight childhood cancer.

The Million Mile 2021 is a fun and simple campaign for everyone. Even pets can join. Just by joining — without even taking a step — members of the public can support childhood cancer research. Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation's corporate sponsors will kick in funds for each person on a team. The Million Mile 2021 campaign runs from Sept. 1 to Sept. 30.

The public also can make donations on Nathan's team website and can learn more about Nathan on his Childhood Cancer Heroes page.