Cancer

It's a nearly ten year tradition in Kansas City - drinking beer for cancer patients. It's called Crawl for Cancer . Wichita is about to become the 17th city in the country to host the pub crawl fundraiser. Mark your calendar for Saturday, September 18. You could describe Wichita's old town as slow on a weekday afternoon. But one person sees it differently. "We have a perfect venue for it, all the bars are really close to each other, walking distance," said Byron Watkins.

We've done stories before of dogs that can detect seizures or cats at nursing homes that spend time with patients before they die. This story tells of a Labrador Retriever that has a better than 90% rate of sniffing out cancer in breath samples and stool samples. Read it for yourself here .

A Wichita artist kicks off a cross country tour to raise money for kids with cancer. Michael potts is a well known painter in the area. He showed off his latest work at the Fisch House studio on Commerce street Saturday afternoon. Potts will travel to 12 cities over the next four months, doing projects with kids affected by the disease in each location. "We're doing kind of a commemorative calendar to highlight a year in the life of 12 honorary heroes," Potts said.

A good coach, a great athlete but friends of Randy Jackson say those traits were second compared to the qualities he possessed personally. "Randy Jackson's goodness had a long reach, he lived like we should all live," says Jim Rhatigan. Rhatigan knew Jackson over forty years until recently when Jackson lost his battle with pancreatic cancer. "I think he can be described as ferocious on the football field but he was gentle everywhere else. " Rhatigian first met Jackson at Wichita State University, where he played college football.

Friends and Colleagues of Retired Wichita Police Homicide Lt. Ken Landwehr are hosting a benefit Golf Tournament. Lt. Landwehr retired from the Wichita Police Department in March after 35 years of service. During his career Lt. Landwehr supervised over 600 homicide investigations in the City of Wichita and surrounding communities, including the BTK investigation which led to the arrest of Dennis Rader. Just before he announced his retirement, Lt. Landwehr was diagnosed with cancer.

A group of cops spent their Saturday doing some work around former Wichita Police officer Tracey Repp's house. "We just know that Tracey had some medical problems and could use some help maintaining some stuff around his house," said Wichita Police Officer Jerod Metcalf. Tracey and his wife need to sell their home because cancer is showing its might. "Which is okay, it's just a house. As long as we're together we're fine," Tracey said. Hodgskin's Lymphoma is keeping Tracey from his current job as a high school principal, and his medical needs cost more than most families could prepare for. Something a strong man wor worked in public service, never saw coming.

Baylee Banning is just like all the other kids in her kindergarten class.  But on the inside, she's quite different.  At just six months-old, Baylee had a large tumor under her right eye and six others on her body.  It was stage four cancer.  Somehow she beat it.  And she was fine until August when another rare tumor appeared.  With her family at her bedside, doctors removed one of Baylee's ovaries to give her another chance at life....

For the last 27 years the Kansas Chapter of the Make-A-Wish Foundation has been granting wishes for children with life threatening medical conditions. Sunday a five-year-old in Wichita got his wish granted. Tripp Stratton was diagnosed with neuroblastoma in 2010. It's a rare form of childhood cancer that develops in nerve tissue. Sunday morning Tripp and his family headed off to Disney World. "We go to New York every month so we're used to traveling," says Tripps mom Ashle Stratton.

12 local Kansans are competing to raise money to support people with blood related cancers. The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Kansas (LLS) is kicking off its fundraising Man and Woman of the Year campaign. The campaign is a 10 week event where the candidates raise money to help patients with Leukemia and Lymphoma cancers. At the end of the ten weeks, the man and woman who raises the most money are given the title as Kansas Man & Woman of the Year. Each participant "runs" in honor of a local child that is a blood cancer survivor.

It's four words no parent wants to hear, your child has cancer.  But it's news a couple in Rose Hill have taken twice, as their nine-year-old son battles a rare type of cancer. But Charlie Futhey is using You-Tube to show his parents his strength to the fight the disease. Charlie is just like any other kid his age.  He's filled with infectious energy and ready to take on the world, but taking on cancer a second time blew his parents away. “You don't think you're going to go through those emotions again but you do.  I think as his parents, we were handling it rougher than him," said Charlie's mom, Sandy Futhey.

It's a competition that dates back hundreds of years. Pitting east against the west. The East/West 5k Run/Walk goes  much deeper than this rivalry. “My mom started Victory in the Valley in 1983 after her diagnoses and she just passed away this week," said executive director, Diana Thomi. "So this is a tribute to her in a way.” These runners came to support the hundreds of Kansans affected by cancer. “My family comes every year in memory of my mom she passed away in april of 2005,” said runner Saul Steffen.

A community college baseball player isn't letting cancer keep him out of the game. Skylar Hill , Barton Community College sophomore, was recently diagnosed with cancer. He threw the first pitch against Hutchinson Community College Saturday night. The team held a strike out cancer fundraiser to help pay for Hill's medical bills. He started chemotherapy treatments this week, but will undergo another round in a couple of weeks. "Baseball has been there your whole life and then it kinda gets taken away from you," Hill said.

A group of cops spent their Saturday doing some work around former Wichita Police officer Tracey Repp's house. "We just know that Tracey had some medical problems and could use some help maintaining some stuff around his house," said Wichita Police Officer Jerod Metcalf. Tracey and his wife need to sell their home because cancer is showing its might. "Which is okay, it's just a house. As long as we're together we're fine," Tracey said. Hodgskin's Lymphoma is keeping Tracey from his current job as a high school principal, and his medical needs cost more than most families could prepare for. Something a strong man wor worked in public service, never saw coming.

It's not the typical buzz you would expect to see outside a sports bar. More than 40 people lost their locks to raise awareness for childhood cancer. NetApp employees teamed up with Larry Bud's Sports Bar and Grill for a fundraiser to support St. Baldrick's foundation. Kristena Hoover was one of nine woman who volunteered to donate her hair. She helped raise $2,000 for the foundation. "Little kids everyday loose their hair in a fight against a disease they don't deserve," she said.

Researchers have developed a mortality index for people over 50 to find out their chances of dying in the next ten years. Can you push a chair across the room? That's one of the questions. You're rated on 12 items- the fewer the points mean your odds are better.  The test is really for doctors to help patients decide future treatments for things like diabetes or cervical cancer.  Read more here and see how you rank.

In pictures, Addison Cox looks happy and healthy.  She has strawberry blonde hair, clear blue eyes, and a girly grin.  But inside, she's fighting a battle. "She has about 15 tumors in her tiny little body,” Kimberly Rubio said. That's why Addison needs an army.  You could call Rubio one of the captains of "Addison's Army. "  The group is made-up of people who knew and loved Addison's mother, Briana. The mother and daughter share more than their looks.  Just two months after giving birth to Addison, Briana learned her melanoma had returned.  This time, the cancer came back aggressively.

A Wichita artist kicks off a cross country tour to raise money for kids with cancer. Michael potts is a well known painter in the area. He showed off his latest work at the Fisch House studio on Commerce street Saturday afternoon. Potts will travel to 12 cities over the next four months, doing projects with kids affected by the disease in each location. "We're doing kind of a commemorative calendar to highlight a year in the life of 12 honorary heroes," Potts said.

Baylee Banning is just like all the other kids in her kindergarten class.  But on the inside, she's quite different.  At just six months-old, Baylee had a large tumor under her right eye and six others on her body.  It was stage four cancer.  Somehow she beat it.  And she was fine until August when another rare tumor appeared.  With her family at her bedside, doctors removed one of Baylee's ovaries to give her another chance at life....

For the last 27 years the Kansas Chapter of the Make-A-Wish Foundation has been granting wishes for children with life threatening medical conditions. Sunday a five-year-old in Wichita got his wish granted. Tripp Stratton was diagnosed with neuroblastoma in 2010. It's a rare form of childhood cancer that develops in nerve tissue. Sunday morning Tripp and his family headed off to Disney World. "We go to New York every month so we're used to traveling," says Tripps mom Ashle Stratton.