44. Treatment, Survivorship & Family Part 2 | A Mother’s Story
From Game Over: c*ncer by Hi Hello Labs Network
February 17, 2026 · 34 min
About this episode
Julie Feuerstein shares her experiences as a mother of a pediatric cancer survivor, discussing the emotional and practical challenges faced during treatment and survivorship.
What is it like to hear your child tell their cancer story… when you remember every detail they don’t? In this powerful Part 2 conversation, the Game Over: c*ncer Podcast sits down with Julie Feuerstein, mom of pediatric cancer survivor Mara, to explore the family side of a childhood leukemia diagnosis. While Mara shared her story in our previous episode, today we hear from the mother who lived every second of it. Julie is an assistant professor at the University of Central Florida and a certified speech-language pathologist. But most importantly, she is Mara’s mom. In this episode, she shares what it was like navigating her daughter’s B-cell ALL leukemia diagnosis, enduring treatment during COVID isolation, and entering the complicated phase of cancer survivorship. We talk about: • The emotional toll of pediatric cancer on parents and marriage • Living in crisis mode during treatment • The trauma and isolation of COVID-era hospital stays • The role of research in increasing childhood leukemia survival rates • Why continued funding for pediatric cancer research matters • What survivorship really looks like years after treatment ends • Letting survivors define their own identity…
People in this episode
Guest: Julie Feuerstein
Topics covered
- pediatric cancer
- family experiences
- survivorship
- emotional toll
- COVID-19 impact
- research funding
Keywords
- pediatric cancer
- leukemia
- survivorship
- COVID-19
- emotional toll
- research funding
- B-cell ALL
- trauma
- isolation
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: University of Central Florida
More episodes of Game Over: c*ncer
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- 51. The Human Side of Pediatric Cancer Research with Dr John Prensner · May 26, 2026 · 37 min
- 50. The Internship That Made Me Rethink My Career · May 12, 2026 · 28 min
- 49. New Treatment Hope for Rare Childhood Leukemia · April 28, 2026 · 32 min
- 48. The Hidden Work Behind Fundraising for Pediatric Cancer Research · April 14, 2026 · 28 min
- 47. How Poverty Impacts Childhood Cancer Survival | Dr. Kira Bona · March 31, 2026 · 43 min
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