Amy and Andy Reiser
When Amy and Andy Reiser first heard about Chad Carr’s terminal brain cancer diagnosis in September of 2014, it hit close to home. The Dexter couple had just welcomed their daughter, Natalie, the year before, and their son, Nicholas, was just 4 years old at the time. Not only was Nicholas the same age as Chad, the two boys looked strikingly similar, sharing flaxen blonde hair and big curious eyes.
Amy, an attorney who handles sexual assault and child abuse cases for the Washtenaw County Prosecutor’s Office, knows all too well the horrors that children and families can sometimes face. Still, the aching sorrow that bled into Tammi Carr’s social media posts as she documented Chad’s journey with DIPG touched the Reisers deeply. They began to pray for the Carr family and closely followed their journey and the eventual heart-wrenching loss of Chad. After Chad’s passing, the Carr family formed The ChadTough Foundation (now the ChadTough Defeat DIPG Foundation), which quickly became one of the leading organizations in funding game-changing DIPG research.
Inspired by the way the Carr family channelled their tremendous grief into hope for future
children fighting brain cancer, Amy and Andy have become even more motivated to get involved
in the fight to #DefeatDIPG.
In 2018, Andy, who manages Hackney Hardware in Dexter, jumped at the opportunity to support ChadTough by training for and participating in the January 2019 runDisney DopeyChallenge during Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend in Florida, raising more than $2,500 for the foundation. The Dopey Challenge consists of running a 5K, 10K, half marathon, and marathon on four successive days in one weekend.
“Tammi’s voice has been such an inspiration,” said Amy. “Our family’s hope is what Tammi and Jason are fighting for every day: that families do not have to lose a child to DIPG. With research and resources, we believe there will one day be a cure.”
