Music ran through Ian’s life from the very beginning. As a toddler, he bopped around his Gaithersburg home to the melodies of Aerosmith, Rod Stewart, and many other classic rock artists whom his parents taught him to love. By elementary school, Ian had picked up electric guitar and started a band with friends; by 1997, at age 10, he was an active kid playing ice hockey and dreaming of becoming an actor-musician. That was the year the headaches started, and doctors found a rare brain cancer called desmoplastic infantile ganglioglioma variant, a type of brain cancer that typically strikes infants, not ten-year-olds.

Treatment began with surgery, then radiation, and chemotherapy, which robbed him of his thick blond locks and 26 pounds from his frame in just two months. But it never touched his spirit. At school, he provided comfort to others when feeling down, using his favorite phrase “turn that frown upside down” and wearing his favorite yellow sneakers so you wouldn't miss him in the crowd. You would find him every day after school watching his favorite artists on MTV and VH1. 

When he couldn't attend school or was sidelined in the hospital, his favorite show, MTV’s TRL, hosted by Carson Daly, buoyed his spirits. He was an active teen; he enjoyed playing pranks with friends and even streaking through the Kentlands, going to concerts with friends and family, attending Washington CAPS hockey games, and playing ice hockey. After lung surgery kept him from a class trip to Italy, Ian pushed through nausea and exhaustion to rock out at a concert at RFK Stadium over Memorial Day weekend. His mother, Jenny, remembered him as a boy who loved to dance and sing even though he couldn't carry a tune — "the only boy who went to the dances who would dance," she said, which is part of why the girls liked him so much. He was an incredible young man with an infectious light that spread to everyone he met. Ian’s Make-A-Wish trip was to NYC to see the taping of MTV’s TRL Live. He met Carson Daly, who graciously gave Ian 12 tickets to Blink-182. It was his last concert with his beloved family and friends. 

Ian died on August 3 at age 14. He was remembered with "Beautiful Boy," the song John Lennon wrote for his own son, and with a Limp Bizkit CD placed in his casket, carrying one of his favorite songs into eternity.

-Statement or quote on what you hope sharing your story will accomplish:

"Ian loved life to the fullest, and even though he had this cancer, he never let it get him down. He was in torment the last year and a half of his life, but he was still happy. He wasn't sick every day, and when he was able to, he went to school and was a normal kid." - Jenny Hahn, via Washington Post Article.