New 'Paws Up Challenge' Brings Awareness To Children With Brain Tumors
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A new video challenge aims to help children with brain tumors.
Remember the ice bucket challenge to help ALS? Well, this one involves people and their pets. It was started by a Philadelphia woman, who is a patient herself.
It's a new video challenge created by Jennifer Pownall who has 3 brain tumors.
"I'm not sad about it. I'm doing what I need to do," Pownall said. "I realized there's not a lot of awareness out there for people who have brain tumors."
Jennifer, who's 43, has brain tumors that are inoperable and cause tremendous pain.
"They call it the suicide disease, because the pain from the illness is so severe and so unreal that unfortunately there have been a lot of people who took their own lives because of the pain."
She has a hope tattoo, and butterflies, hoping that better treatments will someday allow her to fly away from the agony.
Her Paws Up challenge is for children with brain tumors. People post video's with their pets to raise awareness and money for the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation.
"Animals love children, and children love animals," she said. "It really wasn't that hard to think that up."
Jennifer, who lives in Northeast Philadelphia, has reached out to a variety of community leaders and politicians. President Barack Obama responded.
"Each day I'm inspired by people like you," the letter read.
The Paws Project is her second video challenge. Two years ago she started the Air Guitar challenge, to help adults with brain tumors.
She says it was something silly she came up with because of her love of music.
But now her mission is to help children.
"It's making these kids smile and forget about their illness. And they also see the videos and they think, 'wow, look what this person and this animal is doing for me'.
Jennifer has been collecting the videos on her 'Paws Up for Brains" Facebook page for about two months now.
