The St. Baldrick's Foundation
Mission:
The mission of the St. Baldrick’s Foundation is to raise awareness and funds to Conquer Kids’ Cancer by shaving heads on St. Baldrick's Day.
While coordinating hundreds of head-shaving events, we work to provide a fun and rewarding experience for all participants, with goals both ambitious and serious.
Cancer is the # 1 disease killer of children.
Forty-six children, or two classrooms of students, are diagnosed every day. Over the last twenty-five years, the incidence of childhood cancer has increased every year. Forty years ago, childhood cancer was almost always fatal. Today, through the advancements in diagnosis and treatment, 77 percent of the children with cancer can now be cured. Despite this remarkable progress in research and treatment, cancer remains the leading cause of death by disease in children.
The St. Baldrick’s Foundation puts your donations to work.
St. Baldrick’s Foundation (SBF) shavees may sp/files/storyimages/a great deal of energy airbrushing their before and after photos, telling people about their impending baldness, and working up courage for their rendezvous with the clippers. But in the end, everyone is interested in only one thing: curing childhood cancer!
In the first year as an independent foundation, St. Baldrick’s Foundation raised more than $5.3 million – 50% more than in 2004. The majority of the SBF funds were dispersed to the Children’s Oncology Group (COG).
The COG is made up of more than 2,000 childhood cancer experts, working at 230 leading childhood cancer institutions in the U.S. and beyond. This cooperative research group has led the world in finding new treatments. Its members treat over 90% of all children with cancer in North America.
Because of the group’s work, children at any member institution have access to the expertise of the entire group, and progress in research comes much more rapidly than if each research team worked alone.
Dr. Reaman, COG Chairman reported that 100% of the SBF funds received this year are now being used to help speed the day when all children with cancer can be cured.
SBF funds are helping COG institutions continue their work at a time when other funding is scarce. Grant funds from the National Cancer Institute come only as reimbursements after the work has been done and cover only 35-40% of the actual costs involved in research.
“The biggest need facing us is more resources at the institutional level,” said Dr. Reaman. Therefore, the majority of funds are provided directly to COG institutions to pay for the expertise needed to treat patients on clinical trials, which represent a child’s best hope for a cure. “I think it’s great to take what is a very successful grassroots movement in fundraising and turn those funds back to the grassroots by funding local institutions,” he said.
The remaining proceeds were used to create the first St. Baldrick’s Foundation Research Fellowship and a few smaller grants were awarded to related charities fighting the disease.
Dr. Sharon Singh earned the fellowship that is located at Schneider Children’s Hospital, a respected COG institution near the birthplace of St. Baldrick’s in New Hyde Park, New York.
In only three years, Dr. Singh will join the next generation of scientists trained in pediatric hematology, becoming an independent researcher. “Our goal is to train her to do substantial laboratory research, directed at patient problems,” said Dr. Lipton, Director, Pediatric Hematology/Oncology and Stem Cell Transplantation at Schneider Children's Hospital and Professor of Pediatrics at Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
A number of experiences led Singh to Schneider Children’s Hospital and the field of pediatric cancer research, the first of which was the loss of her grandmother to cervical cancer. Later while in college, she was fascinated by oncology while testing cancer drugs, and while in medical school her love for children and interest in oncology came together.
“I think our patients are so inspiring; they are fighters. Everyday, you see it, they are fighting, and the family members count on you to support them. It empowers me everyday to go in to work knowing that whatever we’re doing is helping to prevent them from relapsing,” said Singh. “I also wanted to do the fellowship because it was an opportunity for research. I don’t only want to take care of patients; I would like to contribute in whatever way I can to advance medical knowledge, develop better drugs and learn more about how cancer works so we can find ways to better treat this.”
There are about 60 pediatric hematology/oncology fellowship programs in the US and Canada, and hospitals have very little financial support for these programs, however, Dr. Lipton feels that it is one of the best investments that can be made. Funding a three-year fellowship produces a doctor who will sp/files/storyimages/more than 30 years contributing to research.
“It’s very difficult to get people who want to invest 6 years in their training after medical school and it’s not the most ruminative of the subspecialties, so we have some very dedicated people doing this, and our ability to support them is very, very important,” he said.
As a physician in the midst of treating this disease, Lipton is keenly aware of the significant need for further study. “To fuel this research enterprise is probably the most important thing we can do. We are looking to take care of children who are not born yet, and the way you do that is with research, so the kids coming up do better than the kids here today.”
To learn more about CureSearch, visit www.CureSearch.org
