PEORIA — It is a hard legacy they are building, forged from grief and courage and heartbreak, one carried by four sons for three fathers now gone.
They honor them as best they can, from orange cupcakes to rooting for the Red Sox or talking about being an Army Ranger.
And through the creation and operation of the Michael P. Brown Colon Cancer Festival, something of which they have been part since they were kids, growing up in an event designed to ease loss with a community’s embrace.
Michael Brown died at age 35 in 2019. Chris Rhoades died at age 36 in 2015. Mike Higgins died at age 52 in 2025.
All of them were taken by Signet Ring Cell Carcinoma, a rare cancer that accounts for just 1-2% of all colorectal cancers diagnosed in the U.S. every year.
Their teenage sons, Jaxson and Karter Brown, Henry Rhoades and Connor Higgins, are part of the team putting together the annual Michael P. Brown Colon Cancer Festival, also known as Michael’s Run for Life Festival, in Germantown Hills.
The event is an awareness mechanism, a fundraiser for research and a celebration of the memory of fathers now gone.
“It’s really cool to see how much the community comes together for this,” Jaxson Brown said. “Just extraordinary. Truly inspirational.”
The event started in 2014 when Michael Brown was pre-diagnosed. It was launched as a way for families to grieve, support each other and honor their loved ones’ memory.
The 2026 event starts at 5 p.m. on July 18 at Germantown Hills Crossing Shopping Center, 507 Jubilee Lane, outside Dollar General.
There is a kids race at 5:30 p.m. Then a 5K run and 1-mile walk. There is food, live music and a silent auction.
Proceeds go to the Seidman Cancer Center in Cleveland, where research is focused on Signet Ring Carcinoma.
The teens visit there every March to receive updates from doctors about progress in research and treatments.
“All of us have grown up with this event, we’ve been around it since we were kids,” Jaxson Brown said. “Henry and I knew each other from church, and from this disease. Now we’re taking on roles, doing more with this event.”
Michael P. Brown
Mike Brown was a nurse at Methodist Hospital and also founded and operated a construction business, Brown Construction Company.
His son, Jaxson, will be a junior running back on Metamora High School’s football team in the fall. Jaxson’s younger brother, Karter, will be a freshman at Metamora.
The boys’ mother, Angie, is the founder of the Michael P. Brown Colon Cancer Foundation, which operates the festival and races.
Jaxson Brown has helped with the festival’s kids race and is taking on an expanded role in 2026. His younger brother, Karter, is alongside, working with the bake sale and kids race.
Their father died from signet ring colon cancer in 2019.
“He was an amazing man, my father, a jack of all trades,” Jaxson Brown said. “He could do anything, very tough. Normally people with this cancer live one year or less. He lived with it for 10 years, pushed through it. He did a half-ironman with it. He had no quit in him.
“He gave us everything he had, took us to all the different construction jobs he was working on. He’d play in the yard with us, wrestling with us.”
Michael Brown was a Richwoods High School grad who was a state qualifying diver during his prep swim career and later coached the sport.
Jaxson Brown says he is drawn to military service and wants to attend West Point and be an Army Ranger.
“People say I look a lot like him,” Brown said. “I have his confidence and say a lot of the same things.
“He was someone to model your life after. There were lots of things we could take away from him. He taught us to have no regrets.”
Chris Rhoades
Chris Rhoades was a Metamora native who was a mechanical engineer for nine years at Caterpillar. He loved NASCAR and the Green Bay Packers.
And he loved his family, son Henry and wife Melissa, the latter a Michael P. Brown Foundation member.
Rhoades died from appendix signet ring cancer in 2015.
“I was 4 when he died,” Henry Rhoades said. “I have a couple vivid memories, though. He let me drive a bulldozer with him, and then going after daycare to McDonald’s.”
Henry is a freshman at Metamora High School, and committed to helping with the kids race for the festival and with raising awareness.
“My mom and I make cupcakes for this festival in his honor,” Rhoades said. “They are orange, because that was his favorite color. And they are vanilla, because that was his favorite flavor.
“I just try to remember him as best I can. And being part of the Foundation and helping Jaxson, it’s easier to understand there’s nothing they could have done to change this.
“Nothing.”
Michael Higgins
The loss is newer for Connor Higgins, a sophomore at Bradley University whose father, Mike, died from appendix signet ring cancer on Aug. 24, 2025.
Mike Higgins was a Peoria native and Limestone High School grad who went on to play baseball at Illinois Central College and Eastern University.
He added an MBA at Bradley University.
He worked at Springfield Clinic as associate vice president of regional strategy and planning in Peoria. For OSF Healthcare, he twice was interim president of the Children’s Hospital of Illinois.
He and his wife, Tiffany, raised their kids, twin boys Connor and Drew and daughter, Allisyn, in Washington.
“He loved sports, loved to travel and was a really big Red Sox guy, just loved David Ortiz,” Connor Higgins said. “The Red Sox colors are part of the theme for the official festival T-Shirt this year.”
The family has an upcoming Disney trip planned. They were there in 2024, just before Michael Higgins was diagnosed.
“We’d ride every ride together,” Higgins said. “Pirates of the Caribbean was his favorite, so I’ll be on that one for sure.”
Connor Higgins is studying media production at Bradley. And he’s handling media and assisting with the festival and fundraising for the Foundation through philanthropic projects at Bradley.
And he’s discovered how important the foundation, the festival and community are for him.
“I never really had to grieve someone I was this close to,” Higgins said. “It’s hard. But you see all the people rally around you and it’s amazing to see.
“I’ve turned my grief into something positive through the Michael P. Brown Foundation.”
Dave Eminian is the Journal Star senior writer and sports columnist, and covers Bradley men’s basketball, the Rivermen and Chiefs. He writes the Cleve In The Eve sports column for pjstar.com. He can be reached at deminian@pjstar.com. Follow him on X.com @icetimecleve.
This article originally appeared on Journal Star: ‘Truly inspirational’: How four area teens turned their grief into something positive
Reporting by Dave Eminian, Peoria Journal Star / Journal Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Dave Eminian, Peoria Journal Star | USA TODAY Network
