June 30th, 2026 - Diagnosis Day, 11 Years Later...

It was 11 years ago today, June 30, 2015, a day etched and burned into our memories forever.

Just days after an inverted eye caused initial concern that something might be wrong with Avery’s vision, it mushroomed into the most devastating news we would ever hear, words we never in our worst imagination, envisioned would be uttered.

The picture above was taken just one week before, on June 23 - it was the last picture dad took over Avery in his phone before something went wrong.

Yet little did we know that on that same day at the beach, she said to her brother Cade, ‘I see two of you.’

He didn’t think anything of it, and only after we noticed something was wrong with her eye, did he tell us what she said - we initially shook it off as a 6-year old kid playing around with her brother.

But a week later, 11 years ago today, we sat in a room in the Emergency Room of Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital in Tacoma, a room that felt tiny, as if the walls were caving in on us.

We were hastily sent there by the ophthalmologist who we had gone to the day before to get his thoughts on what was going wrong with Avery’s eye.

He told with concern and adamance in his voice, to get down to Mary Bridge as soon as we could. All he mentioned was there was a tumor- he didn’t say the magnitude of it, he didn’t try to diagnosis it, but he saw enough on the MRI to know this was abnormal, so we rushed to the hospital.

In our minds, in that drive, a million thoughts raced through - would she need surgery? Would it be something benign? Of course it would just be benign, right? Surely it wasn’t anything malignant.

Were we in for a shocker.

It wasn’t benign.

She wouldn’t need surgery.

That wouldn’t be necessary.

It was inoperable - and the furthest thing from benign- this tumor, DIPG, was essentially terminal upon diagnosis.

Cancer.

Terminal brain cancer.

For our six-year old Avery.

It feels like a lifetime ago and at the same time, we can almost see the whole, very surreal moment, like it just happened.

The fight that Avery would put up for the next 7.5 months was unlike anything we will ever experience.

It’s not anything any one should ever experience or have to fight- and yet, our 6.5 year old little sweet heart had no other choice but endure this and fight it, even with certain death facing her, the worst possible result waiting in the wings, a matter of when, not if.

And yet, here we are 11 years later, still overwhelmed by her brAvery, her fight, her grit, her determination, her steel will.

Still wowed by the compassion and empathy from so many people.

Still proud of the warrior our little Avery was during that fight.

Still grateful that we can share her story over a decade since she took her last breath here on earth, amazed that people are still motivated to help us support the leading medical experts in this fight.

Her 7.5 month battle that came to an end on February 16, 2016, when her body could no longer fight it any more.

But over a decade since we established the Avery Huffman DIPG Foundation, our stubborn little Avery continues to move mountains and in her own way, allows her name and legacy to fight back.

We have raised nearly $1.5 million dollars for DIPG research worldwide.

Youth and high school sports showcases and tournaments across the country are done in her honor, many bearing her name, like the Avery Strong College Showcase, where nearly 600 high school football players came to work out in front of college coaches from coast-to-coast, just five minutes from the same hospital we were given the life-altering news.

Events like the Mayor of Maple Valley Golf Tournament hosted by Ian Furness of KJR Sports, where the AHDF is one of three foundations that has yearly, sold-out golf tournament, is the beneficiary of his labor of love. That precedes the release of the Mayor IPA by Georgetown Brewing which raises funds for those same three foundations- the Avery Huffman DIPG Foundation, the Jordan Morris Foundation and Hilinski’s Hope.

Other families holding events like the Ridgefield Rumble 3.0, where the East Ridgefield CrossFit and the Draper family communities held a CrossFit Competition that came together to honor Wyatt Draper—a courageous DIPG angel warrior from Southwest Washington—and raised an amazing $10,000 for DIPG research, with their donation made to the Avery Huffman DIPG Foundation.

Because our fight is ongoing.

And people are committed to join us in this fight.

Still, after all these years, people want to help us fight back.

Next month, we will announce our two newest funding efforts for 2026, the largest donations we’ve made, and it’s only possible because of those who consistently support the Avery Huffman DIPG Foundation.

Because Avery never stopped fighting, so many others refuse to quit fighting along side us.

Eleven years of pain and heartbreak, which feels fresh daily, is matched by eleven years of knowing this fight isn’t being done in vain, or being done alone.

And the the fight is never going to stop.

Because Avery refused to stop.

So we don’t and we won’t.

Keep fighting with us.

Support the Avery Huffman DIPG Foundation today.

Join us in our fight back against DIPG and to honor Avery: https://averystrongdipg.org/donate

#AveryStrong