Meet ASK Kid Ava
- 1 day ago
- 2 min read
“I love playing the piano, I’m very social, and I don’t like sadness,” shared 12-year-old Ava. When she was four, she taught herself how to play piano by ear, a natural talent that made her the perfect fit for ASK’s rockstar themed 2026 Above & Beyond Gala.
While Ava naturally shines in the spotlight, her world changed in March 2024 when her cancer journey began with a leukemia diagnosis. Even then, the 11-year-old was wise beyond her years. Sitting in her hospital room, she remembers asking her parents what leukemia was: “They told me it was cancer.”
In the difficult journey that followed, Ava found peace with music. Her dad, Noah, notes that “music has been one of Ava’s best therapies.” Ava agrees, describing the feeling of playing: “I can just sit down and close my eyes, play whatever I want. It's almost like flying. Like I can go wherever I want and my legs aren't going to limit me. It's just healing.”
From the very first day, the ASK team was by their side. Rachel, Ava’s mom, remembers the immediate support they received from Rich and Katie on diagnosis day: “They asked questions like, ‘What do you need from us? How can we make this better?’ and chatted with Ava to make her feel seen, heard, and taken care of.”
“They know this is heavy, and they’ve never shied away from talking about the heaviness of it. They never tried to make it lighter than it was–they simply carried it with us.”
Watch the video below to hear more from Ava and her family as they express the impact ASK has had on their lives.
That support is exactly what stays with Ava. When talking about ASK, she shared:
“You guys care about kids and it's not just for popularity or for money. You do it because [cancer] sucks and you help make it a bit better or a bit less worse.”
Now, two years after her diagnosis and a few months post-gala, Ava is looking forward to the future. This July, she is getting ready to celebrate a major milestone with her family: turning 13!
