(ABC 6 News) — The Karl Potach foundation held a fundraiser at the Hormel Institute on Thursday to raise money for pediatric cancer research.

The event honored the life of Karl Potach, who died from a rare form of pediatric cancer when he was four years old.

Karl was diagnosed with Wilms tumor at two years old, and after several treatments, surgeries and hospital stays, he lost his battle with cancer just 12 days before he would have turned five.

“Karl was always very concerned about all the other kids in saint Mary’s. He was never really too worried about himself,” Karl’s dad, Kurt Potach, said.

So in 1998, his parents created Karl’s tourney, a golf tournament that raised money for the Hormel Institute’s research into Wilms tumor.

27 years later, their efforts are still going strong, with research expanding into other forms of pediatric cancer and raising nearly one-million dollars for the Hormel Institute to date.

“If through our efforts we can prevent one family from going through what we did, it will all be worth it,” Kurt Potach said.

This year, Karl’s Tourney shifted into a fundraiser at the Hormel Institute, and all the money raised is continuing to help researchers make ground-breaking discoveries in the field of pediatric cancer research.

“It allows them to do new and exciting research that can potentially lead to getting larger federal funding, and that’s what we need to be able to get new diagnostic tools and new treatments,” Dr. Edward Hinchcliffe, a professor at the Hormel Institute, said.

In a field researchers said is underfunded, the support of donors like the Potach family goes a long way to finding cures and treatments.

Continuing Karl’s legacy of helping others is something his family said he would have been the number one supporter of.

“He would endorse our efforts. He’d be the first one on board,” Kurt Potach said.

You can donate to the Karl Potach foundation by clicking here.