ST. BALDRICK’S

The St. Baldrick’s Foundation, a volunteer-powered and donor-centered charity dedicated to raising money for childhood cancer research, recently awarded a one-year, $50,000 grant to Lehigh Valley Health Network.

This grant is one of 33 infrastructure grants awarded to institutions across the U.S., totaling $2 million.

Adults and young adolescent cancer patients face many unique challenges to receive the best care possible. Most are not treated at oncology centers familiar with national clinical trials and research opportunities for their age demographic.

The Lehigh Valley Health Network has been developing an AYA cancer program involving doctors and support staff from both pediatrics and adult medicine. This grant will help make it easier for AYA cancer patients to receive care in a timely manner by helping to fund a “Patient Care Navigator.” This will allow the hospital to take care of more AYA patients in their community offering them the most up-to-date treatments and support.

“The St. Baldrick’s Foundation is excited to fund this latest round of grants, which will give much needed support to multiple pediatric cancer treatment teams across the U.S.,” Kathleen Ruddy, chief executive officer of St. Baldrick’s, said. “These grants will improve the capacity of the institutions to do more research, enroll more children in cutting-edge clinical trials and complete studies that are in progress. These grants would not be possible without our dedicated volunteers and generous donors who believe that kids deserve better than the toxic medicines that are currently available which all too often harm developing bodies and create lifelong, life-threatening health problems.”

This series of grants, combined with the more than $21.2 million awarded in July to fund cutting-edge research, brings the St. Baldrick’s Foundation’s funding total to more than $23 million awarded in 2015.

Grants were awarded based on the need of the institution and its patients, anticipated results of the grant and local participation in St. Baldrick’s fundraising events and activities.

To learn how to get involved, visit www.StBaldricks.org and connect with St. Baldrick’s on social media via Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Vimeo.

As the largest private funder of childhood cancer research grants, the St. Baldrick’s Foundation believes kids are special and deserve to be treated that way. St. Baldrick’s funds are granted to childhood cancer research experts and to innovative explorers who bring with them the promise of a future free from childhood cancers. Kids need treatments as unique as they are – and that starts with funding research just for them.

Visit StBaldricks.org to help support the best cancer treatments for kids.