After surviving childhood cancer, teen helps other kids with a scary diagnosis

CINCINNATI - There’s serious intent behind the laughter and smiles found at this playdate.

“Playdate with the Bearcats” is an event that raises money to help send children to Cincinnati Children’s Hospital summer camp, held at Camp Joy in Clarksville, Ohio, for pediatric cancer and blood disease patients and survivors.

The Playdate is the major fundraising vehicle for Mitch’s Mission, founded by Mitch Stone and his family.

Stone, an Anderson Township resident and cancer survivor, has fond memories of Camp Joy. A camper there for five years, he said kids at all stages of cancer treatment go to Camp Joy.

“They can just be a kid again and do all the stuff you would do at a regular camp,” he says. “It’s just a really neat experience. It was the highlight of my summer.

Lucy Yungblut shares similar camp memories. Also of Anderson Township, the now Nagel Middle School eighth-grader was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia just shy of her fifth birthday, her mom Emily Yungblut says. Two-and-a-half-months later, she was cancer free, but the journey takes about two two-and-a-half-years of treatment.

“I’ve been to Camp Joy every year since I was in the first grade, except one,” Lucy Yungblut says. “This year will be my eighth summer camp. I hope to be a counselor there one day. I love going to camp. I get to see my friends that I’ve made there over the years and always make new ones too.”

Mitch Stone’s cancer diagnosis came in 2009 when he was just 11. A malignant brain tumor (primitive neuroctodermal tumor) was discovered. The experience was the greatest challenge ever for him and his family.

News of the brain tumor alone was startling enough, his mom Dee Stone recalls. Learning of its malignancy delivered a punishing blow.

“When they told me it was malignant, that really hit me,” she says.

That was a long summer for Mitch as he underwent treatment including chemotherapy and radiation.

As Mitch’s fight continued, something extraordinary happened. Through Friends of Jaclyn, a foundation that connects children with brain tumors with a sports team, he was “adopted” by the UC Bearcats football team.

The athletes and their families were praying for Mitch, texting him, knitting him blankets, Dee Stone recalls. They were invested in seeing Mitch through his cancer.

“I was thinking, ‘oh my goodness, we’ve got our village,’ ” Stone remembers.

“They gave me a lot of support and they definitely had my back through that whole thing,” Mitch Stone says.

The relationship fueled Stone in his battle and is also credited, by some, with inspiring the Bearcat players who, in 2009, had a record-breaking season. Many referenced Stone as the team’s good luck charm, his mom says.

In return for the great kindness shown to him during his cancer battle, Stone and his family formed Mitch’s Mission. The Playdate event was inspired by Stone’s love of “hanging out” with the athletes, he says.

“We thought for other kids it would be a really cool experience to hang out with them and have really fun thing to do,” Stone says. “Just basically to be a kid for a day.”

“Playdate with the Bearcats is such a fun way for the community to get involved with the university,” Emily Yungblut says. In addition to attending the Playdate, the Yungblut family is also active with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

This year’s Playdate holds a special meaning for Stone who is in his freshman year at UC majoring in business administration. To date the event has raised $75,000.

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