February 16, 2026- The Ten-Year Mark of Avery’s Passing
Today, February 16, 2026, marks ten years since our sweet, precious, Avery Hayden Huffman, passed away.
It was a strikingly calm mid-February late morning, February 16, 2016, that our little girl took her final breath here on earth.
At 11:11 a.m., that Tuesday morning, her little body, having so bravely fought the monster of brain cancer for 7.5 months, could no longer fight the cancer any longer, and her pain and suffering was erased, Avery made whole once again, in the presence of our Lord in heaven.
From the day she was diagnosed with DIPG, on June 30, 2015, until that day during President’s week, she so fiercely fought, refusing to let cancer take her joy, her zeal for life, her love and compassion for her family and friends.
While cancer took so much from her - he ability to use her right hand, her ability to use her left eye, her ability to walk - there is so much her fight against cancer gave her - more stubbornness, more fight, more empathy and more steel will to not let it take everything from her.
Avery should be a junior in high school, playing who knows what sport, dreaming to be who knows what for her career, planning on who knows where to go to college and what she wanted to study.
She’d have her drivers license, no doubt driving her younger sister around, much to her chagrin (they’d both be teenagers after all), her payment for her little sister, undoubtedly, driving her nuts.
Her stubbornness and zeal would make her a tough nut to crack, no child more prepared to deal with the teenage years than the fearless Avery we know she would have become.
At the same time, her compassion and empathy would certainly be on display just as much as the spice.
Our dear friend Jake, who spoke at her Celebration of Life service, used to tell us when Avery was in pre-school and kindergarten, as we’d often lament just how spicy and fiery she could be, ‘she might be your spiciest, but she’s also your sweetest.’
She had the perfect balance of both - both traits that would have taken her far in life - if only cancer didn’t come and put a halt to all of that.
If you were fortunate enough to meet Avery, you were blessed. You were given a gift. The gift to see that the greatest fighters in the world don’t train in a ring or an octagon, but that they’re children who have been given a terminal cancer diagnosis, who show more resolve than most adults can, all while trying to live life as fully as their body, and the thief of time, try to take that very thing from them.
If you never met Avery, but have heard her story, know her fight, you too were blessed. You too were given a gift.
A gift of inspiration.
A gift of hope.
Ten years later, her story still resonates with families, with individuals, with athletes, with her childhood friends, all close to graduating high school themselves.
Ten years later, her fight still moves people to honor her and fight back for her.
There are countless events each year named and held in her honor- football camps and showcases, 7v7 tournaments, baseball tournaments, fundraisers, you name it.
In fact, the Avery Strong College Showcase, held at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, mere minutes from Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital, where she was diagnosed and where she received her treatment, has become one of the premier college football camps in the country each June, with countless Power 4, Group of FBS, FCS, Division II, Division III and NAIA coaches coming to support our foundation while helping young football players realize their own dreams. Each camper hears Avery’s story, each shirt has her name on it, each MVP trophy, her picture.
Her name and her story continue to inspire people to compete in her honor or to raise support and awareness in her honor.
Shortly after she passed away, our hope was that her life, as short as it was, would not have been lived in vain. That her story instead would inspire people for years to come.
And it has.
The Avery Huffman DIPG Foundation, which was established in May 2016, will mark 10 years of its own existence this spring, and in just under a decade, nearly $1.5 million dollars have been raised to support leading researchers and doctors who are committed to fighting DIPG, treating patients nation, and worldwide, to encouraging and positive results.
Avery’s tumor, donated to the Monje Lab at Stanford University the evening of her passing, and the cell lines developed from it, continue to aid in research and papers in the medical community, nearly 30 hospitals and double-digit countries across the world. Even a decade later, Avery is still impacting the world.
We remember her joy when her YouTube video with Kristin Bell went viral, her response of “I’m on Google,” and her sister telling her, “you’re world famous,” and now, here we are, a decade later, knowing that she is impacting the world.
Impacting it by giving hope - to us, to doctors and researchers, to other families, to countless people who never knew her or her story during her fight, but are plenty aware of it 10 years later.
And that brings us a peace and comfort we didn’t think possible in the days after she passed.
She continues to bring hope.
She continues to bring inspiration.
She continues to make an impact.
She continues to push her mother and father, her brother and sisters, her grandparents, aunts, uncles and friends, to live life to the fullest every day - if she could be inspired each and every day during her fight to get out of bed, half her body betraying her, half her eyes not working, get up out of bed, make her lists, and be determined to check everything off that list, all while her little body was fighting a terminal cancer, what is our excuse?
We had none and we still don’t have one.
So we continue to be hopeful, be inspired and be impacted.
We won’t ever stop sharing her story, we won’t every stop honoring her, we won’t ever stop being inspired by her brAvery and fight.
We hope others will continue to be inspired and impacted.
We hope that through the events and the awareness we spread, people who may have never heard of DIPG, who have never been impacted by cancer in their own life, would continue to help us honor Avery and help us fight back.
Because one day, Google will show that Avery' didn’t just go viral for a call from Princess Anna, but that it will show that Avery, and so many other countless families who lost their daughters or son to DIPG, were determined to put a stop to this.
That so many countless doctors and researchers were so impacted by the fight of these DIPG warriors that they were determined to end it and give, God forbid, the next family who has to hear this diagnosis for their own child, hope that it’s not dire, that progress has been made and their child has more of a chance to survive than Avery and the other DIPG angels did.
We know we won’t stop supporting and fundraising and sharing until they’re at that point.
Currently, the Avery Huffman DIPG Foundation supports the following endeavors:
Annually, we’re donating over $100,000 to these endeavors, not taken in to account to other labs, projects and researchers we supported over the past decade.
And that won’t ever change.
Help us continue to fight back: Support the Avery Huffman DIPG Foundation
We are so grateful for all of the support, the love, the awareness spread, the commitment to fighting back.
We are so grateful for the light that Avery’s life continues to bring.
We miss our little girl, but we know our little girl continues to move mountains and make an impact.
We are grateful she gave us, and still gives us, the gift of inspiration and of hope.
We love you, Avery, and we will continue to fight for you.
Mom, Dad, Alex, Cade and Addison
#AveryStrong
