The #LemonFaceChallenge Goes Straight To The Brain

Four years after the Ice Bucket Challenge raised $115 million for the fight against ALS, there's a new challenge springing up to raise awareness for an aggressive, terminal type of brain tumor that affects young children typically ages 5-9 called Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Gliomas (DIPG).

The #LemonFaceChallenge has participants eating entire wedges of lemon and posting their best sour faces online and tagging their friends to participate in the challenge. So if you’re going to bite the lemon to fight DIPG, consider pitching in a few bucks, too. (Links below).

My family and I took the challenge! It wasn't as bad as I was expecting. My fiance and I both finished our entire wedge. The kids on the other hand about fell off their chair and the youngest one said it was "disgusting". Everyone picked who they wanted to nominate. I, of course, chose our amazing on-air personalities right here at Townsquare Media. My hope is that we can really bring attention to this disease taking young children and find a cure.

It was 3 years ago when I first heard of DIPG. This very rare terminal form of cancer in the brainstem most commonly affects children aged 5 to 9. This was the exact age range of my daughter at the time. It was also the age of her sweet lifetime friend Sofia. The moment they found out it changed everything for Sofia, her family, her friends and most importantly her future. She was diagnosed in March of 2015 and passed away later that September. Her fight was hard and short but the legacy she left after only 8 short years still effects kids to this very day throughout her network including my daughter. #SofiaSmiles

With the funds raised in the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge — 67 percent went to research and with that, scientists discovered a new gene that’s linked to the disease.

We can all help those families affected and not affected yet with all the challenges and tragedies of this disease by supporting DIPG with the #LemonFaceChallenge.

For more info, visit https://www.defeatdipg.org/.