‘Jammin’ to get encore

Some four months after finishing his last round of chemotherapy, 6-year-old Julian Dunn has almost an inch of newly grown hair on his head.

A year and a half after doctors found a golf-ball sized tumor in Julian’s brain, his parents say life is finally returning to normal at their Newport Beach household.

The hearth in the Dunn’s living room is lined with Julian’s extensive collection of LEGO spaceships and cars. Julian would spend hours building with LEGOS while undergoing 55 weeks of radiation and chemotherapy treatments that left him weak and nauseous.

The LEGOS were a solitary, indoor-activity that were a lifesaver for Julian during those long weeks of therapy, his mother, Andrea Dunn said.

Now the LEGOS toys are lined up on a shelf, while Julian plays with his 9-year-old brother Nolan in the backyard or dons boxing gloves for a few rounds in the living room with his dad, Rich Dunn.

“We’re thankful every day that he’s here,” said Julian’s mother, Andrea Dunn. “It finally feels like things are getting better and he can be a regular kid again.”

The Dunns received an outpouring of community support after their son’s diagnosis just before Christmas in 2008. Jammin’ for Julian, a children’s benefit concert in Julian’s honor at a local church last year, raised about $27,000 to help pay the family’s medical bills.

Now the Dunns want to pay the good will they’ve received forward. They are organizing a second concert on May 16, but with all the proceeds going to charity this year.

“It was always our intention to keep it going and give back after all of the help we received,” Rich Dunn said.

Julian’s doctor’s won’t be able to declare him officially cancer free until he is about 17 years old. He still has to get periodic brain scans to make sure the cancer doesn’t return, and will have to do so for the next 10 years.

“It’s been a long, long journey, and we’re not out of the woods yet,” Rich Dunn said.

The Dunns hope Julian will be able to start first grade in the fall.

Julian’s parents took him to Children’s Hospital of Orange County for an emergency brain scan Dec. 5, 2008, after being baffled for weeks by their son’s bouts of nausea and headaches.

Doctors discovered a large medulloblastoma, a type of malignant brain tumor, about the size of a golf ball, wrapped around Julian’s brain stem.

Julian was rushed into surgery the next day to remove the tumor. Surgeons from Children’s Hospital of Orange County were able to extract all but a small portion of the growth.

His parents decided to organized the Jammin’ For Julian event in March 2009 to help pay for their mounting medical bills. The first event raised about $27,000 to help cover their medical costs.

Now the Dunns want to keep the annual children’s concert going to raise money for the families of other sick children in need. They hope the event will become an annual tradition for young musicians to benefit children’s charities.

The idea is a simple one — children performing music to help other children.

This year’s event, 4 p.m. May 16, at St. Mark Presbyterian Church, 2200 San Joaquin Hills Road, will feature local teenage singer and songwriter Samantha Smith and her children’s choir, the Orange County Young Singer.

The concert also will include a performance by 9-year-old piano prodigy Umi Garrett from Aliso Viejo. Umi gained national attention when she gave a show stopping performance on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” last year.

All proceeds from Jammin’ for Julian II will go to benefit various charities that help children and families. The charities include the Beckstrand Cancer Foundation, a Newport Beach-based nonprofit that raises money to support cancer patients and Kristie’s Foundation, which is raising money to build a facility for terminally ill children in Southern California.