11-year-old Eastside girl raises money for brain cancer through art
Redmond Reporter - May 2, 2018
For the second time, an 11-year-old Redmond girl is planning to sell her hand-drawn and painted cards at the Seattle Brain Cancer Walk on May 6.
The funds Megan Lisk receives will be donated to help find a cure for brain cancer, which took her father Dennis Lisk at the age of 44. Megan was 9 years old at the time.
So far, the Bellevue-based St. Louise School student and her mother Jenny Lisk have donated $3,425 and hopes to add an additional $600 from her sales at the walk.
“Working on Megan’s Cards for Cancer has been great for Megan and for me,” Jenny said. “I love having something tangible to work on with her, and I think it’s great for her to help process her grief in this way. She’s been quite committed to the idea of not wanting to see other families affected by brain cancer the way ours has been; I feel like I’m helping her learn that she can turn this motivation into action and make a real difference in the world.”
Youngster aims to help fund brain cancer research in honor of her father
Redmond Reporter - April 21, 2017
When Megan Lisk lost her father in January 2016, she turned to art as a way to deal with the loss.
A few months following his passing, the 10-year-old Redmond resident created greeting cards to sell at the annual Saint Nicholas Christmas fair at her school, St. Louise School in Bellevue. Her friends helped her make posters to advertise the wares at her table and she came away with $500.
Megan took those proceeds and gave them to Dr. Charles Cobbs with Swedish Medical Group during a tour of his brain cancer research laboratory. She told him she wanted the money to go toward brain cancer research as her father, Dennis Lisk, had died from glioblastoma (GBM) — the most aggressive form of brain cancer.
Bellevue student honors father by raising money to fight brain cancer
Bellevue Reporter - April 17, 2017
There wasn’t anything the Lisk family could have done when patriarch Dennis Lisk received his diagnosis in May of 2015.
Glioblastoma is one of the fastest-growing and most aggressive cancers in the body, and it occurs deep in the brain. Lisk, a doting father, loving husband and dedicated employee of the city of Redmond, succumbed to his cancer in 2016.
He left behind wife Jenny, daughter Megan and son Peter.
Megan, who was 9 when her father died in January of 2016, sought solace in art. She has launched a fundraising site, Megan’s Cards for Cancer, to help prevent other families from experiencing the same fate.
“During Christmas, my school had a fair,” she said. “I made some cards and sold them. I got lots of donations.”
That’s an understatement. Lisk earned more than $500 for her cards. She immediately donated the money to her father’s doctor, Dr. Charles Cobbs, the director of brain research at Swedish Medical Center’s brain tumor treatment facility.
“This is important to me,” Lisk said. “It’s hard for me to lose my dad. I don’t want anyone else to lose their family.”
Seattle Brain Cancer Walk hits 10-year mark
Monroe Monitor - April 10, 2017
Megan has harnessed her creativity this year to assist her family’s team, “D’s Dawgs.” She designs and sell cards, and so far has made and donated $500 in sales. She also wrote to former Vice President Joe Biden, who has been advocating for a cure since his son, Beau Biden, was diagnosed with brain cancer; he died in 2015. Megan invited Biden to attend the walk this year.
“She’s been very passionate about wanting to end brain cancer, and wanting to raise money to help with that,” Jenny Lisk said. “Having the walk kind of focuses and helps her process her grief; to have that vehicle, to feel like she is helping to give back.”
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