OT: Humans of NY Fundraiser for Pediatric Cancer Research
Those of you who frequent social media may have seen that the website / facebook page Humans of New York (Link here: https://www.facebook.com/humansofnewyork/) has been running a series over the past two weeks covering the stories of pediatric cancer patients, doctors, nurses, and research scientists at Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital in New York City.
For anyone who hasn't seen the series, it is worth taking a few minutes to read some of the very personal stories being shared. Many of them are emotionally difficult to read, but they are a powerful reminder of how impactful an issue pediatric cancer is, both within our community and beyond. Some of the stories in the HoNY series focus on children with DIPG, the form of brain tumor that Chad Carr lost his battle with in November 2015. Some of the stories also feature doctors who have devoted their lives to trying to cure this terrible disease.
Importantly, this HoNY series has been combined with a fundraiser to help raise money for the innovative pediactric cancer research at Memorial Sloan Kettering. As many now know from the ChadTough Foundation's tremendous awareness efforts, only 4% of all funding from the National Cancer Institute is allocated for pediatric cancers. Because today is the last day of HoNY's fundraiser and so many in our community have felt the impacts of DIPG and other pediatric cancers, I wanted to use this opportunity to highlight this series for the board.
If after reading the featured stories you are so inclined to join the 63,000+ people who have donated to the fundraiser so far, a link can be found through the individual HoNY posts (or at the following link: https://www.generosity.com/community-fundraising/let-s-help-dr-o-reilly-fight-pediatric-cancer). If you prefer to donate to help the equally incredible work the ChadTough Foundation is doing, a link to their website can be found here: http://www.chadtough.org/donate/.
Thanks everyone for indulging my first thread, and Go Blue.
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This is an excellent direction to aim the Michigan money cannon. Get after it, folks.
Just reading about Chad Carr was hard enough for me. My hat is off to the doctors and social workers that deal with pediatric cancers (and other ailments) on a daily basis. Not sure I could do it without losing my mind...
First, all of the upvotes to you for bringing that to the attention of the board. For what it's worth, I think that series has been tremendously insightful and manages to accurately convey (maybe more than anything else I've come across) a sense of what patients, families, and providers go through when dealing with the awful, awful disease(s) of pediatric cancer. I can only partially imagine what my patients' parents go through, but the sense of determination, optimism, and all too often, sadness that those doctors convey is 100% representative of my colleagues (not me though, people are more like, "who hired MGoStretch? He should get back to work and stop watching Trey Burke highlights in the lab")
Thanks for posting this. Love Humans of New York
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Thanks everyone for all the support, including those of you who donated!
As a quick update, all of the funds that were raised during the final story HoNY featured yesterday will be going to Dr. Souweidane and his research team at MSK, who have dedicated their careers to finding a cure for DIPG. Per HoNY, the donations received through yesterday evening helped raise over $1 million for their research.
HoNY is leaving the donation website up for the remainder of today. So far, over 97,000 members of the community have helped raise an incredible $3.5 million for pediatric cancer research. If anyone else in the MGoCommunity has even $1 they can add for the cause, the link can be found here: https://www.generosity.com/community-fundraising/let-s-help-dr-o-reilly-fight-pediatric-cancer.
Thank you!