Hospital close to catcher’s heart
HOUSTON — Remy Koks is an 11-year-old Houston Astros fan whose favorite player is second baseman Jose Altuve, who helped the Astros win their first World Series last season.
Remy is now a fan of Buster Posey, too.
During the Giants’ visit to Houston, Posey visited Remy and other kids along with doctors and researchers at Texas Children’s Cancer Center, to which the Buster and Kristen Posey Fund awarded a grant through the V Foundation as part of the Poseys’ effort to raise money and awareness to fight childhood cancers.
“He’s pretty good,” Posey said to Remy, speaking of Altuve. “Do you play baseball? ... Yeah? What position do you play?”
“I like playing catcher,” Remy said.
“Do you? All right,” the five-time All-Star catcher said. “You know, we won some World Series, too.” “How many?”
“We won three.” “Nice.”
Posey took a tour of the Cancer Center, including the research labs, and heard from renowned doctors Leonid Metelitsa and Xin Xu, who are at the forefront of pediatric cancer research and working on a safe and effective treatment targeting a cancer-promoting gene known to cause an aggressive form of neuroblastoma, a childhood cancer.
It hits home for the Poseys,
who work in conjunction with the V Foundation to aid pediatric cancer research. Their friends’ 6-year-old son, Cannon Wiggins, the same age as the Poseys’ twins, was diagnosed with neuroblastoma when he was 20 months old.
“It’s a treatment that won’t be as rough on kids’ systems, and the side effects hopefully will be mitigated a little bit,” Posey said of the oral vaccine. “I got to see the hospital and the team that’s actually using the funds. Hopefully, it’s something I can portray to Kristen and we can portray to all the generous donors that the money is going to good work.
“Being able to see it firsthand was really special.”
The Cancer Center gets 91,700 outpatient visits per year and has 36 beds on the inpatient floor, where Posey visited kids.
Since beginning the pursuit with his wife in April 2016, Posey has made it a point to visit young patients, including at the UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital.
“I’m always just amazed at how strong and upbeat and positive the kids remain even when they’re going through something as terrible as cancer and the treatment for cancer,” Posey said. “It really puts things in perspective when you think about being worried about not performing well on the baseball field or whatever your job may be, is that how precious life is and sometimes we can all lose sight at what’s really important.”
The Poseys have played a big part in the Giants’ pediatriccancer awareness days at AT&T Park (this year’s is Sept. 1), hosted a gala fundraiser and sell New Era BP28 caps, with some of the proceeds benefiting the cause.