Paula and Todd Oskam’s beloved second son Maxwell James was born on Sept. 18, 2017. The day after Christmas that same year the feisty, joyful little boy was dead.

It was two months before the Oskams learned that their baby had died of an undiagnosed malignant tumor on his stomach that had metastasized. Paula Oskam said she was shocked.

“I didn’t think kids got cancer,” she in a recent interview.

In hindsight, she said, “Max exhibited some symptoms, but they could have been from so many other things. His doctor said that he was healthy. He was just a sweaty baby.” The pediatrician also considered his big belly to be a sign of good nourishment, Oskam remembered.

What actually killed Maxwell was neuroblastoma, the most common form of childhood cancer in children under age 5, as Oskam found out later.

“It’s unbelievable. Eight hundred cases of neuroblastoma a year.”

The Lehigh Valley native’s reaction to her son’s death was not to place blame, or become despondent. Rather, she went looking for information, and what she learned she said drove her to action.

“I was appalled at the level of funding for pediatric cancer; it gets only 4 percent of the national budget for research,” Oskam explained. “I thought, ‘That can’t be true,’ but the more I learned, the angrier I got.” Her findings are detailed at s.healthnwell.com.

Oskam also learned that there are 12 types of childhood cancer, and more than 100 sub-types. Yet, the FDA has approved only four drugs targeted specifically to children. In comparison, last year the FDA approved more than 100 adult cancer drugs, she said.

“They [children] just get versions of drugs watered down to a pediatric dose.”

After what she learned, Oscam said she couldn’t go off quietly.

“Once my eyes were open, I could not live with myself and not do anything about it.”

So, in 2019, she and her husband launched the Maxwell James Oskam (MJO) Foundation in loving memory of their son. The goals of the foundation are to raise awareness of pediatric cancer and fund research.

“If my son had lived, I would have fought for him, but I didn’t have that choice, so I’m fighting this way,” Oskam said.

Last year the foundation raised $37,000, much of it at its inaugural fundraiser dinner in April at the Wesley United Methodist Church on Center Street in Bethlehem.

“We started our journey in Bethlehem at the church where my husband and I were married,” Oskam explained.

After the event, the foundation went looking for a non-profit with a bigger footprint to work on research. By June, the Oskams found Beat NB, a research consortium funded mostly by parents. On its website, the non-profit Beat NB says it has been doing research since 2010, including a clinical trial on a drug named difluoromethylornithine (DFMO) that appears to be effective in keeping children alive and cancer free once they are in remission.

Objectives of the study are to monitor for safety and to find a maximum tolerated dose, as well as to test for efficacy.

Last year, MJO wrote a check for $10,000 to help fund the clinical trial for five children. Her goal this year, she said, is to fund $20,000. Unfortunately, that is on hold right now. A second annual fundraiser dinner and silent auction was planned for last March with an expected attendance of 200, but the event had to be postponed because of the coronavirus. The new date was tentatively July 18 at the Wesley United Methodist Church but the church is not hosting any event until September.

“With 100 percent certainty we will be having this event-just at a later date,” Oskam says optimistically.

For updates, tickets for the event or donations and sponsorships, go to the website at

www.maxwelljamesoskam,org. or contact Paula at paula@maxwelljamesoskam.org.

CHILDHOOD CANCER

Here is what the Bethlehem Press learned from its own research:

“Since 1980, only 4 drugs have been approved for the first instance for use in children.”-Coalition Against Childhood Cancer

“In the last 20 years, only two new drugs have been approved that were specifically developed to treat children with cancer.” – St. Baldricks

“Over the past 20 years, the FDA has approved about 190 new cancer treatments for adults but only three for children.” USA Today

“Since 1980, fewer than 10 drugs have been developed for use in children with cancer. Only three drugs have been approved for use in children. Only four additional new drugs have been approved for use by both adults and children-National Pediatric Cancer Foundation

SOURCE: www.fda.gov/media