In March of 2024, 19-year-old Loveland local Evan Huey was acing his freshman year at the University of Cincinnati when he learned that he had brain cancer.
That reality would upend his life and everyone close to him, but it also would clearly show to family, friends, and the team at The Cure Starts Now what a remarkable and determined young man he is.
During his first six months at UC, Evan hardly had an unscheduled moment. Although he hadn’t picked a major, he was leaning toward a business degree, taking a full course load, holding two part-time jobs, and still managing to get to the gym five days a week. Then the perfect end to his first semester: straight A’s. But a few weeks after returning to classes in January, some weird things began to happen, according to Evan.
“I was teaching myself to play piano, and my right hand coordination wasn’t right,” he remembers. “It kept happening. Then I noticed I couldn’t tap my right foot, either.” After telling his mother and a few friends, Evan’s body began to send more signals that something wasn’t right. “I lost my appetite, started losing weight.”
The first round of doctor visits and tests produced no answers. It wasn’t until Dr. Jeffrey Kemmet, DC, a chiropractor friend of Evan’s mom, Debbie, suggested it could be neurological that Debbie contacted Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. The first appointment she could get was seven weeks out. And that was unacceptable.
Debbie Huey is the kind of person you want on your side when things hit the fan. Once she realized Evan’s symptoms might be brain-related, she was relentless in her pursuit of an earlier appointment. “I called three and four times a day to see if there had been a cancellation. I finally got an appointment in mid-March with neurologist Dr. David Ritter.”
After that, getting answers for Evan went from glacial crawl to warp speed. Six days later, a tumor was removed from his brain; the pathology report revealed that it was a form of medulloblastoma.
To make matters worse, when Evan awoke, he also suffered a heartbreaking side effect called posterior fossa syndrome, which left left him unable to talk, walk, swallow, see clearly, or do virtually anything for himself.
Debbie rarely left Evan’s side after surgery. For the first 10 days, she sat beside his bed in total darkness, total silence, as the swelling in his brain subsided. Evan’s dad, David, kept things running at home for Evan’s older sister, Emily, and Ash, the family German Shepherd.
Evan's recovery was long and extensive, moving from ICU to the neurological wing, then to rehab. His days in the hospital were grueling, painful, and frustrating as he began the process of learning to do everything for himself again. And there were setbacks. “I just wanted to go home so bad,” he shares.
Before Evan was released, a social worker told Debbie about a number of organizations that could support Evan and the family as everyone adjusted to this new normal, which is how the Hueys first heard about The Cure Starts Now. As it turned out, TCSN would not only be a lifeline, but add a greater purpose and meaning to Evan’s new life.
Keith and Brooke Desserich, who live in the Cincinnati suburb of Wyoming, had no intention of starting an organization that would fund research for the most aggressive and incurable cancers, including the kind of devastating brain cancer that their 6-year-old daughter Elena was diagnosed with. In 2007, they were merely working through their grief, sharing online with family the little notes and drawings Elena had written and hidden throughout the house in her final months.
In one of these posts, Keith used the phrase “the cure starts now,” explaining their frustration over the lack of funding and research into these specific brain cancers that primarily affected children, but also in some rare instances, teens and adults like Evan. Not long after, the Desserichs received a check made out to The Cure Starts Now. Suddenly, the grief of losing Elena inspired a new path forward.
Today, The Cure Starts Now is an international nonprofit with 58 chapters across the United States, Canada, Australia, and Japan. “We work with researchers from all over the world who freely share information and success they’ve had with treatments,” says Molly Fogle, Senior Events Manager for TCSN.
At the end of last year, the organization, along with its collaborative partners, had raised more than $37 million for cancer research and support since its founding. Currently, that number now tops $39 million and equals 171 grants for cutting-edge, critical brain cancer research. In 2024 alone, more than 200 fundraising events were held worldwide — TCSN chapters, ambassadors and supporters are already on track to break that record as well.
Earlier this year, Evan was at the forefront of two events as a campaign ambassador, backed by his support groups, Team Evan and Evan’s Cowgirls.
In August, he and Debbie were keynote speakers at the Hyde Park Blast, a Cincy tradition and all-day fundraising event benefiting The Cure Starts Now Cincinnati, where Evan spoke to the crowd about what he had been through, and the impact it had made on him and his family. That ability to verbally share his story was nothing short of a miracle.
He also served as ambassador for Cones for the Cure, an annual TCSN campaign held in partnership with Greater’s Ice Cream and their stores nationwide.
But through it all, Evan still fights. Considered among the “warriors” of TCSN. In total, Evan endured six weeks of radiation and six months of chemotherapy last year. Today, he is in remission, reclaiming his old life one day at a time. “Celebrating the small victories.”
His future is uncertain, but according to Evan, he doesn’t think about that. “I try to stay optimistic. I know God has my back.” Instead, Evan has goals. “Once I get my balance back, I want to go bike riding and be able to drive myself to the gym.”
Continuing his advocacy work alongside TCSN and sharing his story have become an important part of Evan’s identity, too. He told Molly he wants to walk the Hyde Park Blast’s 4-mile course next year. And the year after? Run it. A clear goal for Evan and an inspiring gift of hope, courage, and resilience for us all.
The Cure Starts Now
The ultimate mission of The Cure Starts Now is to eliminate all cancers by focusing first on those specific types of terminal, inoperable brain and spinal tumors that are resistant to current chemotherapy drugs and primarily target children. All year long, TCSN offers support to families in the fight in a variety of ways, promoting fundraising campaigns and hosting events where 100 percent of donations go directly toward research — funding that is already moving scientists closer to a cure for all cancers. To learn more, attend or sponsor an event, or donate to help fight the cancer that affects the most vulnerable among us, go to TheCureStartsNow.org.