SANDUSKY, Ohio — One organization in northeast Ohio is honoring the lives of children who have battled cancer by growing sunflowers.

What You Need To Know

  • The Prayers from Maria Foundation honors the life of Maria McNamara, who died at 7 years old from a glioma tumor

  • Prayers from Maria has raised nearly $8 million in the fight against childhood cancer    

  • The organization runs two sunflower fields in hopes of drawing attention to childhood cancer research

Spectrum News 1 anchor Chuck Ringwalt spoke with Megan McNamara, Maria's mother and the founder of Prayers from Maria, about their fight against childhood cancer.

McNamara talked about the impact her daughter made at just 7 years old.

"Our daughter, Maria, who was diagnosed with a deadly brain tumor, she really inspired the foundation. She inspired our thoughts and our ideas and what we wanted to accomplish, but one of the things that she did was she always prayed for other kids who are suffering, other kids who she met at St. Jude's who are fighting in the battle," she said. "And one of the things that is transferred over to the field in that memory is people who come to the field or are able to fill out prayer cards and put their prayers or their thoughts or their hopes on any prayer cards at the field. And then they go and they take those prayer cards and they hang them on a sunflower. Every day, many families get the heartbreaking news that their child has been diagnosed with cancer."

The sunflowers in Cedar Point typically bloom in August. The sunflowers in Avon typically bloom throughout September during Childhood Cancer Awareness Month.

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