$50,000 Childhood Cancer Research Grant Awarded to Valley Children’s Healthcare

MADERA, Calif. (November 18, 2015) – The St. Baldrick’s Foundation, a volunteer-powered and donor-centered charity dedicated to raising money for childhood cancer research, is proud to award a one-year, $50,000 grant to Valley Children’s Healthcare. This grant is one of 33 infrastructure grants awarded as part of the Foundation’s fall grant cycle, totaling $2 million.

This grant from St. Baldrick’s allows Valley Children’s Healthcare to increase access to their childhood cancer survivorship program to high-risk underserved populations, and supports their ability to identify better ways to serve their patients and improve outcomes so pediatric cancer survivors can prepare for their future.

“I had my own experience with childhood cancer,” says Dr. John Gates, a pediatric hematologist/oncologist and founder of Valley Children’s Childhood Cancer Survivorship Program. “It inspired me to help children and their families deal with the difficult process of cancer – from diagnosis to long after treatment. We hope to help more children who were treated with cancer grow up to be as strong as they can be, understand what treatment they received, and how to best take care of themselves in the future.”

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 $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.

“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.,” said Kathleen Ruddy, chief executive officer of St. Baldrick’s. “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.”

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

About St. Baldrick’s Foundation
As the largest private funder of childhood cancer research grants, the St. Baldrick’s Foundation believes that kids are special and deserve to be treated that way. St. Baldrick’s funds are granted to some of the most brilliant childhood cancer research experts in the world 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. Join us at StBaldricks.org to help support the best cancer treatments for kids.

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