Brody Huber was a bold, active kid who rarely showed discomfort or complained about anything.
So when he turned 13 and began behaving in ways that were not normal for him, his family took notice.
Not long after, he received one of the harshest cancer diagnoses imaginable.
At first, it all sounded like typical teenage growing pains. He seemed tired. He complained of headaches. Nothing that would usually raise alarms. But his mom sensed something was off.
Brody, who loved sports and outdoor adventures, began acting differently in June 2020. His mom, Tina, immediately noticed that he didn’t seem like the energetic boy he always was.
“He was so healthy,” Tina told the Daily Mail. “I just couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong.”
On a family camping trip, Brody stunned his parents when he asked to go home early because of a terrible headache that wouldn’t go away. For a kid who thrived outdoors, this was very unlike him.
Wanting reassurance, Tina and her husband Jeff scheduled an MRI for June 24, 2020. They had no idea that the results would turn their world upside down.
Within two hours of the scan, Brody was rushed to Children’s Hospital Colorado.
A life-changing discovery
Doctors informed the family that Brody had a large mass on the right side of his brain.
“This news hit like a massive earthquake,” Tina shared. “We were shaken to the core. Brody was so strong, so adventurous, so healthy. None of it made sense.”
Two days later, Brody had brain surgery to take a sample of the tumor and to insert a VP shunt to ease the pressure inside his skull. Tina explained that the shunt was a thin tube, about the size of a piece of spaghetti, running from deep inside his brain down behind his ear and into his abdomen.
Six days after the surgery, the family received the diagnosis they feared most. Brody had diffuse midline glioma H3K27M, an extremely aggressive brain cancer that cannot be removed with surgery.
“It is known as the worst of the worst,” Tina said.
Doctors explained that with treatment, Brody might survive an additional six to nine months. Tina asked what treatment was available. They told her chemotherapy would not work on this type of tumor. The only option was six and a half weeks of radiation.
When Tina asked about side effects, the doctors listed headaches, nausea, and vomiting.
She pushed back, saying, “He just had brain surgery to relieve those symptoms. Now the plan is to bring them back? That’s not fair.”
Her son’s oncologist responded quietly.
“Without radiation, your son may only have three months left.”
Doing everything possible
The family chose to fight. Brody tried radiation therapy and also explored every supportive treatment they could find. He did meditation, acupuncture, massage therapy, and Reiki. He even joined a clinical trial at the Vitanza Lab at Seattle Children’s Hospital, where medication was delivered directly into his brain.
Some children in the trial have lived twice as long as expected. But Brody’s cancer continued to spread.
He died in March 2021. It had only been eight months since his diagnosis.
Even as his health declined, Brody showed remarkable strength.
“When he learned the cancer was spreading, he looked at me and said, ‘I really thought I had it, Mom,’” Tina shared.
Keeping Brody’s spirit alive
To honor their son, the Hubers started the Brody Huber Foundation to support the Vitanza Lab and help give other children access to urgent, life-saving research.
They have already raised 85 thousand dollars and plan to donate another 50 thousand dollars on November 21, 2025, the day Brody would have turned nineteen.
“We never want another family to experience what we did,” Tina said. “We have to find a cure.”