Valentine’s Day is all about love and giving, and U CAN-CER VIVE delivered just that. Kelley and Ryan LaFontaine, founders of U CAN-CER VIVE Foundation, along with their fellow board and committee members, visited children currently receiving cancer treatment at four local hospitals.
U CAN-CER VIVE delivered Valentine’s Day bears to hundreds of children at DMC Children’s Hospital of Michigan in Detroit, Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Henry Ford Hospital in Novi and C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital in Ann Arbor.
“My heart is full with love from seeing the smiles from not only the courageous little kiddos battling cancer, but their parents too,” said Kelley LaFontaine.
Ahead of Valentine’s Day, dozens of U CAN-CER VIVE volunteers helped created the heart-warming gift packages.
“Without the outpouring of support from our dedicated volunteers, U CAN-CER VIVE wouldn’t be able to make the tremendous impact it has,” said Ryan LaFontaine.
In addition to the Valentine’s Day bears, U CAN-CER VIVE presented DMC Children’s Hospital of Michigan with a grant for $90,400 towards advancing cancer research. This was the first grant check presentation for the year, with others planned at Henry Ford Health Systems, Beaumont Health and C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital. In total, U CAN-CER VIVE will be granting nearly $800,000 in the 2019/2020 year. A breakdown of the grants are as follows:
- $90,400 to Dr. Jeffrey Taub and Dr. Madhvi Raipurkar, DMC Children’s Hospital of Michigan, for evaluation of coagulation complications and global assays in acute oromyelocytic leukemia.
- $48,610 over two years to Dr. Fred Valeriote, Henry Ford Health System, for development of arctiin/arctinogenin as anticancer drugs for the treatment of pancreatic cancer.
- $391,250 over two years to Dr. Gazala Khan, Henry Ford Health System, for genomic sequencing to optimize treatment algorithms in pancreatic cancer study.
- $100,000 to Dr. Bernadette Zwaans, Dr. Michael Chancellor and Dr. Laura Lamb, Beaumont Health, for development of urine biomarkers to predict radiation cystitis, expanding on $50,000 grant made by U Can-Cer Vive Foundation in 2017.
- $150,000 over two years to Dr. Carl Koschmann, C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital, University of Michigan Health System, for improved targeting and monitoring of pediatric brain tumors.
