Race For Kids To Help Parents Of Children With Serious Disease

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Parents who have a child with a serious disease know how hard it is to balance their child's needs and work and home life -- many find it overwhelming. Now, as Mike Schuh reports, a new nonprofit is stepping in to help.

At six years old, Ryan Darby beat cancer.

"When I got cancer, people think that it affected my life big time. It did... for the better," he said.

His battle happened at Georgetown Hospital. His family saw others with great needs.

"There are children to take care of, take to school, food to put on the table and bills to pay, and that becomes a nightmare," said Ryan's doctor, Dr. Aziza Shad.

So, wanting to help, Ryan's family and friends turned thoughts into action.

"So they came up with a triathlon for kids called 'Just Tryan It,'" Ryan said.

In seven years, these kids-only races have raised over $1 million for two hospitals.

Now, it's Baltimore's turn. Remember Ryan's doc? She now heads the Herman & Walter Samuelson Children's Hospital at Sinai.

"In Baltimore, the needs are greater," Dr. Shad said.

Needs that will be met by the money raised by a new "Just Tryan It" to be held at the Park School. They hope 200 kids will enter.

Speedster Andrew Guarraia has already raised over $500.

"Our niece passed away in April after five years of battling cancer," Andrew's mom, Carla Guarraia, said. "So we watched their family be in and out of the hospital, be out of work, take time off."

Andrew will bike, run and swim. The money he raises won't stop cancer, but it will pay for the things struggling cancer families need.

"So we just hope this money can be used in a way that the hospital, they know who needs it... And so, they can just give it to families that need it and they don't have to think about these kind of stresses," Carla Guarraia said.

The kids-only triathlon will be held on September 11 at the Park School. Registration is $50.