DECATUR, Ill. (WAND) — The stories are hauntingly similar — three moms lost theirs sons to brain cancer before they received their high school diplomas.
Adam Carter was 12.
Silas Martin was 16.
Tanner Gillen was 14.
"We know their lives were not in vain but it just brought extra comfort to our hearts to know that something profoundly big is coming from [their deaths]," Silas' mom, Gloria Martin, said.
Martin teamed up with Shannon Carter and Amy Gillen to raise awareness for pediatric brain tumors in the wake of their sons' deaths. 28,000 kids have brain tumors in the United States. While all of them aren't cancerous, each one can still be life threatening.
"Even if it's not cancerous — if it's a brain tumor and it's growing inside your brain — because that is a confined space, it can kill you," Martin said.
The photos of their sons are in color, but the moms are wearing gray — to draw awareness to the gray matter in your head and support other moms watching their kids go through the same fight.
"Sometimes it was just so nice to talk to someone who had been through some of the same things," Carter said.
"When people would meet me and say 'oh, you're so strong,' I would say that's because I'm surrounded by fierce, strong women," Gillen said. "I could not have done this without the support."
