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In November 1975, at age 19, Jim Pesoli was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Disease. After 33 treatments of radiation and an exploratory surgery, he was sent home with a clean bill of health. In 1984, the cancer returned, this time in a different part of his body. Now a husband and the father of two, Jim went through another nine months of chemotherapy.

During his trips to the hospital, Jim thought about how hard it would have been if it were his children fighting the battles he was, and that inspired him to help other families whose children were stricken with cancer. What particularly pulled at Jim's heartstrings about children fighting cancer was the amount of courage it took for a child to go through treatment.

"Adults can rationalize and understand what is going on," Jim explains, "but the kids can't. A toddler has no idea of what is going on when you inject an IV into him and pump him full of chemotherapy. The little girls and boys just know that they have to go to the hospital and see a doctor, and that afterwards they are going to feel really sick."

Jim wanted to do something to help these little brave people through this hard time in their lives. Jim and his wife, Susan, made an appointment at Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago, and were taken on a tour of the hospital. During the tour, they discovered the oncology floor, a place full of parents and their kids waiting to go in for treatment. Jim and Susan were taken to a small room within the floor with its lights off, which used to be the playroom. The hospital had run out of funding for its upkeep. Instead of being able to go to a playroom, the children had to sit in the waiting room, with nothing but what their parents brought to take their minds off their cancer treatments.

Jim told the development staff at Children's that he had no idea how much money he could raise, but whether it was $5 or $5,000, he'd like to see it go to reopening the playroom. In October of 1985, Jim and his family hosted their first benefit. They had about 250 people attend, and they raised about $5,800. Jim brought the money to the hospital, the playroom opened, and the benefit became an annual event.

Soon after, Kids Fight Cancer added an annual golf marathon to its fundraising events. The charity was able to raise enough to staff a full-time therapist to work with the kids during their time at the hospital. The annual dinner dance grew to require a larger venue, the Rosemont Convention Center. The 2005 dinner was attended by 1,400 donors.

All of Kids Fight Cancer's donations go directly to funding the Oncology Playroom at Children's Memorial Hospital; the fundraising and events tasks are operated completely by volunteers.

Since the charity's inception, Jim has gone through two more bouts of cancer and a bone-marrow transplant. Through it all, he has stayed true to his goal: Creating a way to take children's minds off of their illnesses. Jim touches the lives of tens of thousands of children each year.

Jim's dream is for his legacy to live on long after he does. His goal is to raise $10 million, so that children undergoing cancer treatments at Children's Memorial will always have a place to play and drawings to go back and finish after going through their chemotherapy treatments.

Your big hearts keep our little hearts happy!