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A group of parents recently got a specialty license plate approved by the Florida legislature.

It took years to get the childhood cancer-themed plate passed. Now they have one more thing to do before production can begin: Three thousand people need to commit to a plate.

The golden yellow license plate can be purchased at www.floridakidscancerplate.com.

Gold is the ribbon color for childhood cancer.

“I think it’ll be really visible on the road, which is nice,” said executive director of the Beat Childhood Cancer Foundation, Kyle Matthews.

Then, it’s just a matter of a few weeks before they go out.

“Our hope is by the end of summer all 3,000 are sold,” Matthews said. “September is childhood cancer awareness month.”

The project is mostly spearheaded by the Beat Childhood Cancer Foundation, which drives clinical trials in 50 children’s hospitals across North America. Ex-Tampa Bay Lightning Alternative Captain Ryan Callahan is also involved.

Matthews, who helped found the group after losing his son to childhood cancer, said Beat Childhood Cancer was formed because parents felt there aren’t enough options for kids with certain types of cancer.

Matthews and his wife lost their 2-year-old son, Ezra, to stage four neuroblastoma in 2010.

“We wanted to do something that could help change that story for the next family,” he said. “We founded a group with one clinical trial with a few kids.”

It’s grown to 50 children’s hospitals and research organizations.

They’ve launched more than 20 clinical trials and have driven over $7 million in research to help with novel treatments and innovative options. The foundation works closely with doctors, researchers, families and advocates across the world.

Matthews said there is a bill that outlines what specialty license plates are.

They had to find a Florida senator and member of the House to sponsor the bill and who would add their plate to a list of specialty plates on the bill.

“They have to draft that and run it through the House and Senate and everything has to be approved,” Matthews said

They had some help from former state representative James Grant, who now serves as the chief information officer for the Florida Digital Service.

State representatives would submit the bill; it would get approved in the House, but not in the Senate.

Or Matthews said there could be other bills on the floor or it just didn’t make it into that session.

“A year went by and we weren’t really sure what was going on,” he said. “We hadn’t heard anything about it.”

But, the bill was approved.

“It was a huge surprise,” Matthews said. “I definitely had a big smile on my face.”

Samantha Bravo lives in Fort Myers and runs the nonprofit group, Ariya’s Lion Pride.

She lost her daughter, Ariya, to cancer in August 2019.

According to the foundation’s website, 43 children a day are diagnosed with cancer. One out of five will not survive. That’s more than 90,000 children each year.

Funds raised by Ariya’s Lion Pride will be used to find new, promising and less toxic targeted therapies for infant leukemia by partnering with leading research hospitals.

“The license plate means a lot to me because I feel like this is a huge step in making a difference,” Bravo said. “Not only for funding but for awareness, too.”

Her daughter was diagnosed with infant acute lymphoblastic leukemia when she was 7 months old.

“The odds were very slim because of her age and the amount of research for her age group,” Bravo said. “She battled it for 20 months and unfortunately passed away after 27 months old.”

Bravo is committed to raising awareness for childhood cancer and to increase funding for research.

When her daughter was diagnosed, she said she had less then 33% of a chance to live.

“The government gives less than 4% of allotted funding toward childhood cancer research,” Bravo said. “While the remaining amount goes to adult cancer. It’s not enough for children and children are the future and they do deserve a chance to live.”

“Childhood cancer is not as rare as most people may think,” she said. “It’s not the smiling child that you see on the commercials every now and again. Children are resilient and they are tough, but they need all of our help and that’s where we come in.”