Violet was a feisty 11-year-old farm girl with bright red hair, a contagious smile and a huge love for nature, pets and people. She was also one of a few hundred children diagnosed each year with brainstem glioma, a rare, deadly and insidious inoperable tumor.
Bright, generous and fearless, Violet understood that she would die from her tumor – and she understood that to develop better treatments, doctors need to be able to learn more. That’s why before her death in October 2012, Violet asked that her brain be donated to science in hopes that it would help doctors create new, effective treatment options for others.
That gift – along with similar donations from other pediatric brain tumor patients – is the inspiration behind Project Violet.
For more about the stories of Violet and others who inspired Project Violet, please watch the video below and click on the links in the left-hand column.