The latest New Yorker of the Week turned tragedy into action, working each day to make his daughter's wish come true. NY1's John Schiumo filed the following report.

Talia Castellano maintained optimism while fighting neuroblastoma, a rare cancer of the nervous system that mostly inflicts children. 

Her positivity inspired thousands while posting treatment updates and sharing beauty tutorials on her YouTube channel. 

Talia died in 2013 at the age of 13, but her fighting spirit lives on through her father, Marc Winthrop. 

He is the chairman of "Band of Parents." The nonprofit raises money for pediatric cancer research through volunteer-driven events. 

One of its biggest is an annual hockey game at Madison Square Garden. 

"Talia loved coming to the Ranger games. She thought it was a lot of fun," Winthrop said. "Hockey gets a bad rep sometimes because of the fighting, but one of the things that we've found is that, I've learned my whole life it's an unbelievable community," Winthrop says.

"Even though she was sick, she did a lot of great things, and she was just a really nice big sister," says Kate Winthrop, Talia's sister.

Through the efforts of dozens of parents, survival rates for neuroblastoma are now up to 50 percent.

For Marc and these parents, that's still not nearly high enough.  

"He wants to eradicate neuroblastoma in his lifetime. He wants to do that," says Ronnie Berke, executive director of Band of Parents. "And he hasn't given up.  And he hasn't forgotten. And he's still as motivated today as he was when his child was sick."

Since 2007, "The Band" has raised $6 million for research at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and other institutions across the country. 

"There's about 650 to 700 kids a year diagnosed," Winthrop says. "So as you can see, there's really no market for a blockbuster billion-dollar drug. As we went through the process of her treatment, that's how I learned of that. Then it became a frustration for me. So I wanted to do something about it." 

So, for leading a band of parents trying to make Talia's wish come true, Marc Winthrop is our New Yorker of the Week.