Stay Tranquilo

Live Like Bella CEO Nicole de Lara Puente: Fighting Childhood Cancer in Miami + Beyond

31 min
Feb 4, 20263 months ago
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Summary

Nicole de Lara Puente, CEO of Live Like Bella, discusses the foundation's evolution from a family initiative to a national organization serving childhood cancer patients and families. The episode covers the organization's three core services: financial assistance, memorial support, and research funding, including the groundbreaking Live Like Bella Pediatric Cancer Research Initiative and the Comprehensive Childhood Cancer Network.

Insights
  • Childhood cancer research funding was completely absent at the state level in Florida until Live Like Bella advocated for legislative action, demonstrating how nonprofit advocacy can unlock government resources through creative budget allocation (cigarette tax dollars).
  • Connecting researchers with actual patients and families creates breakthrough outcomes—the Logan case study shows how research symposiums bridging the gap between lab scientists and patient communities can directly save lives.
  • Cancer survivorship is an underserved area with significant psychosocial and physical challenges (survivor guilt, reproductive health concerns, medical record fragmentation) that require dedicated networks and resources for young adults.
  • Nonprofits scaling impact require professional leadership transition from volunteer-run operations to structured teams; Live Like Bella grew from kitchen-counter volunteers to a 10-person team serving 38 countries by formalizing programs and securing government partnerships.
  • Advocacy success depends less on expertise and more on resourcefulness, persistence, and finding champions within existing power structures who understand budget mechanisms and legislative processes.
Trends
Government-nonprofit partnerships for healthcare research funding using creative budget reallocation rather than new tax burdensResearch symposiums and patient-researcher networks becoming standard practice for accelerating clinical outcomes in rare disease spacesSurvivorship care emerging as critical gap in pediatric oncology requiring specialized subspecialties and comprehensive tracking systemsNonprofit organizations positioning themselves as subject matter experts and go-to resources rather than just service providersVirtual participation options becoming standard for fundraising events post-COVID, expanding geographic reach and accessibilityFinancial assistance for families during treatment recognized as foundational need alongside medical careMulti-institutional research networks (11 institutions in Florida alone) replacing siloed research approachesAdvocacy-driven policy change at state level creating replicable models for other states and healthcare domainsEmotional storytelling and humanization of research outcomes driving donor engagement and policy supportYoung adult cancer survivor support networks addressing gap between pediatric and adult oncology care systems
Topics
Childhood cancer financial assistance programsPediatric cancer research funding and grantsState-level healthcare advocacy and legislationResearch symposiums and patient-researcher collaborationCancer survivorship and psychosocial supportNonprofit organizational scaling and professionalizationPediatric proton therapy centersClinical trial access and patient recruitmentReproductive health impacts of cancer treatmentMemorial and bereavement support servicesVirtual fundraising event modelsSubject matter expert positioning for nonprofitsComprehensive Childhood Cancer Network developmentBankhead Coley Fund and James and Esther King Fund utilizationChildhood cancer awareness and community engagement
Companies
Baptist Health / Miami Cancer Institute
Opened Miami Cancer Institute where Bella's Pediatric Proton Cancer Center was established; Nicole worked there befor...
MTV
Nicole worked in media at MTV before transitioning to healthcare and nonprofit work.
Sony Pictures
Nicole worked in television industry at Sony Pictures before her career pivot to healthcare.
University of Florida Cancer Center
Received Live Like Bella research funding; hosted researcher who inspired creation of the annual research symposium.
Florida International University (FIU)
Dr. Diana Azam conducts relapsed cancer patient research at FIU, featured in Nature Medicine; previously ineligible f...
Nicholas Children's Hospital
Receives tissue samples from relapsed cancer patients for FDA drug testing as part of Dr. Azam's research study.
University of Miami
Houses pediatric gynecologist specializing in reproductive health impacts of cancer treatment on young women.
MD Anderson Cancer Center
Bella underwent major 18-hour surgery at MD Anderson in Houston, which inspired the original 'Live Like Bella' social...
Texas Children Hospital
Nicole spoke at conference there about Live Like Bella's advocacy model and research funding approach.
People
Nicole de Lara Puente
CEO of Live Like Bella; joined foundation 9 years ago after career in media and healthcare; led development of resear...
Raymond (Bella's father)
Co-founder of Live Like Bella foundation with wife Shauna; appeared on podcast previously; advocated for pediatric ca...
Shauna (Bella's mother)
Co-founder of Live Like Bella foundation with husband Raymond; started foundation in honor of daughter Bella.
Bella
Child who died of cancer; legacy inspired creation of Live Like Bella foundation and pediatric proton cancer center i...
Dr. Diana Azam
Researcher at Florida International University; study on relapsed cancer patients published in Nature Medicine; met f...
Logan
Relapsed cancer patient (patient #13) who benefited from Dr. Azam's research study; now playing soccer and healthy.
Andre
Podcast host for Stay Tranquilo / Cafecito y Croquetas; interviewed Nicole about Live Like Bella's work.
Quotes
"When a child is sick and we see this every day, one of the parents has to stop working. And that's if they're two. If not, you can end up in a situation that families like you and I that have had everything we need, we can't pay our rent."
Nicole de Lara Puente
"Justice has not been served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are."
Nicole de Lara Puente
"Every day, 43 parents hear the words, your child has cancer. And it's on us to make sure that that changes."
Nicole de Lara Puente
"I don't care what you call it. It doesn't have to be called the Live Like Bella. Call it whatever you want. But we owe these kids."
Raymond
"Show compassion. That's what it means to live like Bella."
Nicole de Lara Puente
Full Transcript
Good morning, buenos dias. Welcome back to another episode of Cafecito y Croquetas brought to you by Stay Tranquilo and H&Co. Today we're joined by Nicole, CEO of Live Like Bella, who we've had on the podcast before. We had Raymond on the podcast, a very emotional and impactful story. But today we have Nicole here who's with us. And I just want to say thank you again for being here, all that you guys do and being such a big part of the community. Thank you, Andre. It's a privilege to be on here. Thanks for having us. Absolutely. So we had Raymond on a few months ago. And of course, he was able to give his story, obviously the legacy of Bella and what she left behind now with the foundation. So I definitely want to touch on that, but also hear kind of your journey into getting involved with Live Like Bella. So I joined Live Like Bella almost nine years ago this summer. And I have to tell you personally and professionally, it's one of the biggest privileges of my life. how I did how did I end up here I think it was Bella tapped me on the shoulder there's nothing else I can tell you the first half of my career I spent working in media I worked for MTV I worked for Sony Pictures not with anything that I'm doing now and I had left the television industry and was working for Baptist Health when Baptist Health opened the Miami Cancer Institute which was right around the time that Bella passed. I had followed Bella's story forever. I'm sure Raymond told you. It started with a hashtag. Everybody in this community was praying for her. If you don't know the story, it's because you didn't live here at the time. Right. And I followed her story forever. And I met Raymond and Shauna, who had started the foundation in her honor when they named the Pediatric Proton Cancer Center at Miami Cancer Institute after Bella. If you walk into Miami Cancer Institute at Baptist, it says live like Bella. The family fought really hard to bring a proton machine for children in Miami. So we met, and long story longer, like my friend says, we had a conversation over a cafecito, as a matter of fact, at La Carreta and Kendall. That's funny. And we were sitting, having coffee, and just talking as friends. and we had started to work on some legislation, which I can get into a little bit later. But we had this conversation and I said, hey, Raymond, what's next for Live Like Bella? And he's like, look, you know, we're at the kitchen counter. I have a job. Shauna has a job. We do this as volunteers, but I don't know where to go from here. And I said to him, I said, we should think about working together. But I kind of meant like, what can I do to help? Of course. And, you know, two weeks later, I was sitting in front of the board of directors And they offered me this opportunity because, I don't know, Bella just started talking to me. So I left and came on to go work in the garage, which everybody told me I was crazy, but Bella didn't. And I took this opportunity to get involved at a time that was a big crossroads for Live Like Bella, of, you know, keep it in the kitchen counter and do what we're doing or move it forward. And that's what Children Battling Cancer needed. So I took the opportunity. And, you know, at that point, we were a team of three and now we're 10 and serving families across the entire nation and 38 countries. So I ended up here. The answer to your simple question is because Bella tapped me on the shoulder. And I remember it's crazy that you said that, right? Because I remember when Ray came on, it was always like Bella was in everybody's life. Right. And she would come in and you would feel her. And I remember even like the day that I recorded with with Ray, like I could I could feel her. I'm like, she is here in the room. She is with us. And she's like, I'm glad we've gotten to this point. Because it was Bella's legacy. Right. And then like for you to say that now, it's kind of like, wow, like this is the actual legacy and impact that Bella is leaving on an everyday basis by bringing in people like yourself. Right. Because like you said, it was a crossroad that the organization was at. And there were so many, I guess, challenges of what they went through. Right. And they were like, how do we fix some of these problems, right? So that other families that are going through something similar don't have to fix that. So if you can kind of touch on what were some of those challenges that Ray and the family and Bella were kind of facing through that process that inspired Live Like Bella to become the foundation that it is today. I think the basics, which are still our, let's call it bread and butter today, is providing financial assistance to families while their children undergo treatment. I know Raymond mentioned that I say this all the time. When a child is sick and we see this every day, one of the parents has to stop working. And that's if they're two. If not, you can end up in a situation that families like you and I that have had everything we need, we can't pay our rent. Or we're having a hard time checking out at Publix. And there are really not a lot of resources. There isn't a comprehensive place. There's different foundations across the world that do work. But it was very hard for families to be able to pay their very basic bills. So Live Like Bella to this day, I would say, has three lines of service, the primary one being the basics of providing financial assistance. The other one, which I know Raymond mentioned, which is very sad, but from my perspective very privileged, is to be with a family if their child were to pass away. It may be the saddest thing that we do, but from my perspective, one of the most privileged to be with a family, especially when it's been a family we've been taking care of for a long time. So there's the financial assistance, there's the in-treatment support, I mean, the memorial support, and then the research, which I want to talk to you a little bit about. Yes. Which that, at that time, there was nothing. I remember in that cafecito conversation in La Carreta, Raymond and I had talked to a mutual friend a couple of months before who had been in the legislature for like 16 years. And we asked her, we said, wait, what has ever been done in childhood cancer? She was, man, I've been here a long time and I don't know. I got to go back and look and see, you know, if there's ever any. She went and she checked and she came back. She's like, the state of Florida has never done anything in childhood cancer. Wow. And at the time, I'm like, I don't I don't understand. Right. Because you're like, OK, if somebody told you, Andre, what do you mean that people don't care about cancer? It's not that they don't care. It's just that the funding had never been allocated. So together, we created something called the Live Like Bella Pediatric Cancer Research Initiative. It's a partnership between the Florida legislature and the Department of Health and Live Like Bella that it's a grant program that essentially takes several million dollars in recurring funds a year that applicants or researchers in Florida, regardless of whether they're part of a major cancer center or whether they're part of a university, are eligible for funding to do childhood cancer research. right now a lot of even in the state right if you weren't what they call an NCI center like there's four major NCI centers in the state that do incredible work but this fund was particularly important because the NCI centers get regular funding and some of the other ones don't you're an FSU alum FSU was never eligible to apply for funds to something like that even here in Miami and FIU there was right now since it's since it began there are 75 studies being funded at 11 different institutions across the state and so many of which we can be proud of that are happening right here in our community absolutely um so there's you can't get me started on that because this podcast is you know it's not long enough no absolutely but i mean i think you bring up like the most important part about all this right like one of your initial meetings that there was no assistance right there was no research there was no funding behind something like this And now I sure as you look back you know looking forward from that meeting to today it like holy cow look how much we been able to accomplish right And being that pioneer and being that impact for so many different families. I mean, I can only imagine that just by starting these initiatives and having the universities involved in research and having, you know, kind of this funding now in place, like how many lives have actually been touched because of this? Look, I'll share a story with you that happened to happen here in the community. And I'll do my best not to get emotional. In full disclosure, when I started this, remember I told you I had worked in television. I didn't know anything about the healthcare profession, nothing about childhood cancer. One of the few families that had never been directly affected by cancer. So this was really something that I got into. I had no idea what I was doing. I'm not going to lie to you, Andre. This has been a pulmon, right? De puerta en puerta, looking for this funding and building relationships with all of these different institutions. And I went to visit several labs across the state that had received funding from the Live Like Bella Initiative. You had brilliant people doing research across the state, many of which, though, if you're not a clinician, if you don't see patients, not all researchers are doctors and not all doctors are researchers, right? They all have a PhD, but they don't do the same thing. Exactly. So you have researchers that are working in a lab that perhaps have never met a child with cancer. And it was a resounding no every time I asked, hey, has anybody in this room ever met a child with cancer? No, never met a child with cancer. I'm like, man, there's a disconnect here because I think it's important for families to have access to researchers and vice versa. So un invento that happened in Jacksonville in the summer of 2021, that it was still COVID-y in 2021. But yo seguía. I was visiting the University of Florida, their cancer center. One of them is in Jacksonville. And I met with one of the researchers who had been one of the originals to receive funding. And as we were leaving, I had been, you know, I had toured the lab and he walks me out to the lobby. He goes, man, it was so nice to meet you. Wouldn't it be cool if we got all of the researchers that so far have gotten funding in one room? And I was like, yeah, we're actually we're going to do it at our first annual research symposium in Miami in September. This was like July. OK, maybe it was June. um but we're meeting we're that summer and i'm like we're having our research symposium in september he's like i'll be there count on it and i was like awesome and i walked out into the parking lot and i called rim and i go hey i just invented a research symposium right what happened so i had no idea what we were doing yeah um and i did it the day before bellows ball they're really the team at that point i thought they were gonna quit uh anyway how did we structure We're in year six now. We have huge, tremendous partners to help us do it because it's expensive and complicated logistically. But one of the big things when we built this symposium was to give access to families to attend. You talked the same way I was talking to researchers that had never met a family. You were talking to families that didn't know anything about research. Right. So in one of the symposiums about three years in, a researcher that's become a dear friend, Dr. Diana Azam, she's at Florida International University. She's doing a study, actively doing a study, that I'll do a poor job at explaining. But basically, it takes patients who are relapsed, takes a tissue sample of that patient, takes it to Nicholas Children's Hospital, sends it back to the lab. They run a test on it with already approved FDA drugs and see what hits, right? So like if a child was under X protocol, we say, okay, that protocol didn't work. And now drug A plus B plus Q works, and they give it to the patient. that study was featured on the cover of nature said nature medicine which is like i don't know if you're a fashion designer you're on the cover of vogue i mean it was one of the most major research studies what happened we're at the research symposium diana the researcher is presenting and there's a mom in the room who had been there all morning and during lunch there was a poster session which imagine like a science fair okay so there's a poster talking about the study and a mom is looking at it and she's like my son is patient number 13 and look I told you I'll try it again so the researcher standing there you have a mom there her son was very very sick he had relapsed they had told her there are no more options for him his name is Logan he's playing soccer Logan is a super cool kid he has a brother and a sister and this is a child that had there not been somebody fighting a pulmon to make sure that this can happen especially I say it very proudly here in this community Logan might not be with us and stories like Logan's there are dozens right so I share that story with you can talk about research and research is complicated you and I like you don't know much about research you're not you're not a physician right but when you talk about this and you humanize it you know both of those women were in tears the researcher was in tears the mother was in tears because you're sharing a story you know I'll send you stuff if anybody wants to see it to meet Logan. But anyway, that's why we do what we do. It's complicated to talk about research, but you don't have to even talk about people. Right. Yeah. But I think that's the gist of it, right? You may not have to know everything, you know, from the outside about exactly what's going on behind the scenes in this research, but that's the perfect case study that without the research, right. And without the testing and learning and having a budget to be able to execute this, right. Cause like anything, it's going to cost money. But if you have the backing and the support to do something like that, you're going to find solutions like this. And to your point, if that trial doesn't even happen, who's to say that it doesn't save Logan's life, it doesn't save God knows how many other people's lives, right? So I think more than anything, I think this is like, you would hope a recipe for success for other organizations to follow, right? I know we were talking kind of like offline before, but one of the biggest thing was like pushing the legislation, getting the state of Florida, you know to be an advocate for this so if you could just kind of talk about that process as well of like how it was like I want to say like going to battle with the state but like convincing the state and finding solutions to work with the state that maybe other states can kind of follow to replicate what you guys have done look to be honest I think you don't always have to be the smartest person in the room you have to be the most resourceful right and anything you want to get done, you have to have a champion if you're not in that space. Because you could have access to money, to contacts, but if you don't have somebody that's willing to go up to bat for you, and we had a friend that was working in the legislature who just cared and knew how to find funding that it's very difficult to get funding when there's a taxpayer burden. Taxpayers don't want to pay more taxes, even if it's help kids with cancer. Right. Right. None of us do. Yeah. So it's hard to find it. So the state was very creative and pulled funding from cigarette tax dollars. The state has to use that money for different things. There was something called the Bankhead Coley Fund, the James and Esther King Fund, but none of those funds that existed similar to Live Like Bella were eligible for pediatrics. Pediatric researchers were like looking for scraps everywhere and there was no scraps to be found. So it was a very creative way to say, okay, where do the funds live and how do we use them for a good purpose? In Florida, we did it with cigarette taxes, but you can do that with any other money somewhere else. Right. Right? I can't pretend to know about different legislatures, but there's always something somewhere. Exactly. Every year, and right now, Florida's in the middle of the legislative session we just started a few weeks ago, and every year you hear the same story from every single state. This year is going to be the worst year. There's no budget. Nobody gets along, and I'm like, dude, this is the same story every year. Exactly. We've been hearing this forever. We've been hearing this story forever. But there is a glimmer of hope if you have somebody that really cares. That like you know what We have to get something done And if you have somebody with influence and with knowledge of how to I don want to say work the system but who knows how to find it It there It just you know I spoken I spoke at a conference at Texas Children Hospital last year And there was a lot of different folks in the audience from different organizations, one of which is based in D.C. And they were like shocked. They were like, how did you get this done? I'm like, man, a pulmon, the same way, the research symposium. So we fought for it and we got it done. And I think, you know, you mentioned when you spoke with Raymond, we have the opportunity here to serve as an example. To serve as an example to other states in terms of advocacy. I'm the first one to get on a plane, tell me, where do you go? Who do you need to talk to? I'll help you. And Raymond said it too. He's like, I don't care what you call it. It doesn't have to be called the Live Like Palanini. Call it whatever you want. But we owe these kids. I think, you know, one day my sister lives in North Carolina and I was flying back and I was sitting at the gate. and the flight was late and there was a guy talking next to me just hablando and he says to me he goes oh what do you do and I said oh I you know run a childhood cancer foundation in Miami and he says to me did you lose a child to cancer or something and I go no thank god I have two healthy girls and he's like oh okay nice to meet you so I get on the plane I put my bag in the overhead bin I sit down and I'm like you know what man the next time somebody asked me if I lost a child to cancer I'm going to say, I did, and so did you. Because Bella wasn't my daughter, but we all lost a child to cancer. And when we start thinking about it that way, you know, and some people will tell you, like, oh, you know, not that many children die of cancer. Let's talk about years of life lost. And again, Bella wasn't your daughter, and she wasn't mine, but we lost her. And every day, 43 parents hear the words, your child has cancer. And it's on us to make sure that that changes. Absolutely. Absolutely. I think you worded it perfectly, right? Like it may not be your child, but at the end of the day, it is directly maybe affecting someone close to you, right? A friend, another family member, right? Someone that you know, it may not be you, but someone that you know probably has been affected by it, right? And I think that is already too close. Look, there's a good quote that I'll butcher probably a little bit, but it says, justice has not been served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are. And I know you have a cousin who battled cancer. I did, yeah. All of us know somebody who has battled cancer. And even if you haven't been impacted, we should be as outraged as those who have. Absolutely. And I mean, I don't know fully the extent of her process. I do know that it was a very aggressive chemo process. She had stage four non-Hopshkin's lymphoma. I think they had given her a 20% chance. I mean, it was dark. It was bleak. It did not look good. But I remember she lives in Tennessee, and they found a good doctor here in Tampa. I forget the name of the doctor now, but apparently was one of the best, especially here in Florida. We have on her side of the family, she has some cousins that live down there. So logistically, it also worked for her to have a home and family around. Because to your point, right? Like, it's not that easy to just like uplift your life, right? Like my uncle had a job, has his job. Like he can't just say, I'm going to move to Tampa because he's going to pay the bills for, you know, the hospital bill, his everyday living, you know, all these things that go into just like everyday life. And then all of a sudden, this is thrown at you. So it was tough. Like, how do they make this work? and, you know, knock on wood, here we are a couple years later, and she's amazing. You know, she's a teacher. She just finished her master's. Oh, that's awesome. You know, all these amazing things that, you know, she's doing. And, you know, I think, and I'm actually curious to ask you this question, right? She wasn't necessarily maybe a child. She, you know, in college, right? So obviously still young, right? So I guess adolescent, you know, older child. but the kind of the post-trauma that comes from cancer, what's kind of like, I guess, some of the thoughts and reactions you've seen from some of the people that you guys have interacted with when it comes to that? That's actually a great question. And actually, at the Research Symposium, we always have a session about survivorship. We have a board member who's also a Columbus alum that he battled cancer when he was in high school. And today he's, I don't know, probably turning 49 or 50 this year, and he still struggles thinking about what he went through. A lot of survivors have something that's referred to as survivor guilt. You know, a lot of these kids, as they get older, you know, if they had a friend that passed away, like, why did I get to live? And my friend didn't get to live. There are lots of issues, psychosocial issues, physical issues. You know, we've met, there's an incredible pediatric gynecologist at the University of Miami that I didn't even know there was a subspecialty. And I was like, why does that happen? Why do they work with kids with cancer? young women who are undergoing cancer treatment, their reproductive organs can be affected by the treatment. And you're already asking questions of like, will they ever be able to have children? So I think, you know, and I was showing you earlier my jacket, I'll show you later, there's a bunch of pictures of kids who are survivors, and they still deal with it. You know, they still deal with it. There's a couple of different programs around the state, but there's a lot of disconnect, I think, around the country. There's a program called Passport for Care. But what happens is in terms of resources, if you receive treatment, even if you were in college, right, like you may not remember the medications you were on, the doctors you saw, because in theory, you know, an adult would have taken care of it. And how do you go back later to talk to your doctors? Where are those records kept? How do you? So there's a big disconnect. And to address that, I think Raymond also mentioned we received another grant from the state last year different than the existing research grant because that goes to other organizations. This one came to Live Like Bella to create something called the CCCN, the Comprehensive Childhood Cancer Network. And that is a network that the core of it is to connect researchers with patients and vice versa. You have some researchers that are like, man, we have the money, but we can't find the patients. or patients that say nobody's ever offered us a clinical trial. So that was the core of it. But one of the very important things as we're building it now as we speak is to have a survivorship component. So people like your aunt, she's a young adult, let's call it, right? And she's going through places like, where do you go? I'm sure if you talk to her and you ask her, what are the challenges that you live with? We're working on making resources available for families. It's amazing. Because, I mean, now I'm seeing it on the other side and I could see the you know the effect right yeah and I think she's obviously done a good job of honing in herself and taking care of what she needs to take care of like doing a master's and you know doing all these things to get over that hurdle right but you know I think there's like you mentioned kind of like that guilt right she I've definitely seen that um kind of the the fear like is this going to come back right and like how do you deal with that I think there's like a lot of like this mental component that that you need you need to go through a version of like now a different type of healing right um and i think that in itself is extremely difficult i think it's important to find uh a network a circle of folks if somebody had lived it yeah um i think there's a lot of loneliness uh because i can't you know she could talk to me and i can't really relate exactly you know and that's the heart that to me is the hardest part too like being on the other side of it it's like i want to help you and i can give you advice and give you that but like who am i who am i to say you should be doing this when i never been in that situation it hard and we i think we try to do a good job of connecting people because there like awesome support groups so sometimes we don want to go to support groups because they sad Or sometimes you need a network whether it be for the kids themselves or for the parents or for survivors, somebody who gets it. And we don't always get it. I mean, we see it every day, and I can tell you, hey, Andre, we see that all the time, I get it, but I don't get it. I haven't lived it. Raymond has had that experience as a father. Yeah, true. I have only lived that from the privilege of the sidelines to see how we can be there. But I definitely think that survivorship is an issue that we're working to address, not just with kids, but with young adults. And I'm telling you, I don't think it's something, I mean, I can't speak to it myself, but I don't think I've ever spoken to somebody, even as a grown up, that battled cancer doesn't think about it every day. Yeah. I can only imagine. But that's great that there are initiatives. And honestly, I was just curious from more of like the personal experience side and just seeing it. But as always, you guys are doing amazing work. The research, all the initiatives that you guys have in place, I think, is only the starting point with all of this. So I guess that takes me to my next question. What is next for Live Like Bella? What are, you know, obviously outside of continuing to do what you guys do, but what's kind of like the next vision for Live Like Bella? When somebody asked me sort of what my vision is, I always say it is for Live Like Bella to be the subject matter expert on childhood cancer. What do I mean by that? If you're a parent that needs resources, we can help with financial assistance. If you are someone who is doing a podcast and you want to talk about cancer, we call it Vivek Pela. If you're a journalist for a major news network and you're running a story on Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, if you are the governor of the state of Texas and you want to talk about, hey, who's doing this well? I think it's important for us to build a credibility and reputation of an organization that is the go-to place for anybody living with childhood cancer. Going back to what's in the near future is the building of the CCCN, the Comprehensive Childhood Cancer Network. It brings together, we were doing that anyway, but we had never formalized it, right? When we sat down and we saw that we might have an opportunity to receive a grant, yet another time I had no idea what I was doing. I can't lie to you here. But opportunities come and I just open my heart. That's how it works sometimes. Well, anytime like a young person asks me like, oh, how do I, you know, what should I do for my career? I'm like, dude, just open your heart because you don't know. So we were doing a very good job at connecting people because we're not health care providers, but we're very good connectors. And this network that we're building now will do that. So I think the future of Live Like Bella will be to continue providing assistance, which is what we do. but to increase collaboration and access. So I would say that that's the biggest project we have on the radar right now. That's amazing. And then one last question. What does it mean to live like Bella? Oh, man, there's several ways to live like Bella. I can tell you my favorite, which is to show compassion. I have a poster on the wall in my office that says show compassion because the hashtag live like Bella, side note, But the way that it started, Bella was receiving, Bella had a major surgery at MD Anderson in Houston. The surgery was like 18 hours. And while she was in recovery, I wasn't at Live Like Bella at this time. Her mom posted on Facebook, like, it's a beautiful day in Houston and Bella's in a coma. Please pray for her and do things today that she would love. Wear red, sing a song, take a bubble bath, eat s'mores. There was a whole list of stuff she liked to do. And one of them was to show compassion. and and if you ask me what it means to live like bella there are so many ways but i think showing compassion is something that we can all do more of absolutely um so that for me is what it means to live like bella that's amazing well i know we have a 5k coming up right and that's a big thing for you guys great for awareness great for fundraising so talk to us a little bit about the upcoming live like bella 5k so our live like bella 5k is our superhero 5k it's on sunday February 8th. It's Super Bowl Sunday, but don't worry, you don't miss the Super Bowl because it's in the morning. It's early in the morning. It's at 8 o'clock. Yeah, it's at 8 o'clock on Sunday morning, February 8th at Tropical Park. And it brings together, gosh, almost 2,000 people who come to run or walk. It's not like the Miami Marathon. You can chew. There's been people that walk with like a wagon with their kids. You don't have to be intimidated by the run or walk. But it's impressive. We call it the Superhero 5K because really these kids are superheroes. So it's the theme and you will see kids who have battled cancer or are currently battling cancer who are there. It's an emotional experience. I can imagine. It's beautiful. We have a huge party afterwards with a beer garden. I didn't know people drank beer after five kids, but they drink it. It's like a whole thing. It is a thing. I think we have like set. It's part of the running. It's a whole thing. Runner's experience. So there's like seven breweries there that are going to be there. Very cool. There's music. There's vendors. It's a really special event. I think it gives us a chance to do something cool together. And I know in Miami there's something every weekend. Yes. There's a gala. There's a five kids. There's an arts festival, especially during this time of year. But this is one of the opportunities that you can take a couple of hours and bring your family and run or walk and support children battling cancer and have a really good time. Absolutely. I've been to a few 5Ks in my time, and they're always a great time. It's always great that you could do something like that to support, obviously, a good cause, right? How long has the 5K been around? Since before my time I lived in Lafayette, I think. Oh, wow. So it's one of the earlier initiatives. I lose count because of COVID. Right. But one of the years of COVID, we did it anyway, and we did a virtual 5K, which actually was awesome. How did that work? It was awesome. It was like we didn't, you had to run one on your own. Oh, okay, gotcha. You know, like we still did the medals and the shirts, and we did it. But like you did it, you know, even if you weren't there, you did it sort of in solidarity. Right. Which, by the way, if you can't go that day, you can still run virtually. Right. And in solidarity. When you go online to register, if you're like, no, I can't go because my son has soccer practice or whatever it is, there's an opportunity to register. Yeah, they also call it the sleep-in option. Okay. But you better be in town if you're going to go. No, no, that's the thing. I'm not going to be in town. Okay, no, then you're a virtual participant. I'm going to do a virtual participant. Yeah. I'm going to run in San Fran at the Super Bowl. You see? Okay, so you're going to the Super Bowl. All right, good excuse. It's a good way to go. You don't have to do it at the right time because of the time difference. Exactly. I have a little bit of leeway because I'm three hours behind. I'm going to send you the shirt before. I want a picture. Do it. I will do it. I promise. I want a picture of you there. Absolutely. That's listening February 8th, right? It's Sunday, February 8th. And wait, P.S., hold on, back it up. We're doing a coupon. Okay, yes. I don't like to call it a coupon. Let's call it a code. Yes. That all of the listeners of this podcast, if you write the word tranquilo, when you go register, you register at livelikebella5k.org. Livelikebella5k.org. And when you go on there to check out, it'll give you the opportunity to add a code. So put tranquilo, and then people will know. And I'll go back and tell you how many people registered. Yeah, no, that would be awesome. Go register. Go register. It's going to be an amazing event. It's awesome. For an amazing cause. It's an opportunity to embrace the Live Like Bella lifestyle, right? Like she mentioned, compassion and so many other things that Bella represented. So it'll be an amazing time. Whether you can go, right, or not, you still have the option. So there's no excuse. But if you're in Miami, February 8th, be there. It'll be a great time. Trombo Park. Absolutely. But no, thank you so much for being here. As always, again, thank you so much for everything that you guys do, everything that you guys represent. And whenever we want to do this again, it's always here. Awesome. Thank you so much. I appreciate you guys. Awesome. Thank you. Thank you guys, as always, for tuning in. Make sure to enjoy your cafecito, enjoy your croquetas, and this time also, join the 5K February 8th at Tropical Park. See you soon.