XL Soccer kicks kids’ cancer with fundraiser

There are fewer things that Grace Bowman loves more than soccer.

It’s the sport she has lived and breathed her entire life, and it’s the reason why she runs the ship at XL Soccer.

But there is one thing that has grown into a full-blown passion for the British native: Raising money for pediatric cancer research.

“The big dream is that the research trial that we fund finds a cure,” Bowman said. “In the meantime, it’s finding better treatment for these kids. The amount of funding that goes to pediatric cancer is minimal — I think it’s 4% of government health care.”

Helping children who are battling cancer is exactly what XL Soccer will be doing at its facility Saturday, Sept. 15, as it hosts the sixth annual Kicking Kids’ Cancer fundraiser. The event, which will kick off at 6 p.m., will be an evening of fun for visitors, who will enjoy cocktails, catered food, live music, an online auction and local soccer celebrities such as former Orlando Pride player Sarah Hagen. Hagen, who also played for the U.S. National Team, is also a cancer survivor.

There also will be a raffle that includes a prize of club tickets to Orlando City’s game against the Houston Dynamo with an opportunity for a child to walk out with the team prior to the start of the game.

Last year the event raised an impressive $50,000 that went to the organization’s sister charities in For Kids’ Sake Foundation and Cannonball Kids’ Cancer, and Bowman is hoping to best that and hit the $60,000 mark. She also hopes it can go toward making a huge difference — just like last year, when XL helped fund its first research grant.

“We gave them a check for $50,000, and that helped fund a research grant with doctors at the Children’s of Alabama Hospital,” Bowman said. “So I went up with Cannonball to Alabama that day to meet with the doctors … what they’re doing is using immunotherapy to treat cancer.”

The money raised helped Dr. Gregory Friedman and his team to continue their research — which was on the verge of being lost to a lack of funding. 

In an email to Bowman, Friedman said the work they had been able to do thus far — thanks to the money raised — was proving successful.

“We’ve treated seven patients so far — six of the patients received G207 alone and the most recent patient (patient seven) received G207 + a single dose of radiation within 24 hours,” Friedman said in the email. “Radiographic and clinical evidence of responses occurred in five of six patients showing improvement in overall function without any additional therapies.”

The news of all the good that came from last year’s fundraising came as a relief for Bowman, who never experienced the loss of someone dealing with cancer prior to a few years ago.

In their collaboration with the For Kids’ Sake Foundation, XL chooses a team captain to sponsor each year. Although most of the five children chosen have lived through their battles, one — Ryan King — did not.

Although the loss of King was difficult, Bowman has pushed on with Kicking Kids’ Cancer, and it’s in large part because of those families she and XL Soccer have helped through the years.

“Just from working with the families — that’s what has really made think twice and think a little bit more and inspired me to do what I do,” she said. “I want to make sure that we don’t have anymore parents come in and say, ‘My child has just been diagnosed’ — we need to stop that.”