With a focus on supporting families in the local Tampa Bay area, the organization has partnered with Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg, FL.  In 2017 and 2018 alone our partnership with the hospital helped raise over $150,000 that has been utilized by the Cancer and Blood Disorders Institute to improve patient care. Additionally, these contributions have helped JHACH become the first pediatric facility in the state of Florida to offer the lifesaving CAR-T cell therapy. Other initiatives include improved patient resources at JHACH, monetary grants to support local families, and contributions to pediatric cancer research organizations such as the Benjamin Gilkey Fund for Innovative Cancer Research.

Our goal is to ensure that local families have all possible treatment options available to them here in our community. This year’s goal will be to help bring JHACH online as a full CAR-T cell processing center. This will allow the hospital to not only administer the treatment but also process and store the cells needed for this therapy. A treatment which costs close to $500,000 per patient. Our aim is to ensure that Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital continues to be one of the best treatment facilities in the nation and continues to forge ahead in the field of pediatric cancer research and treatment.

This unexpected and long journey these these families must undergo, are tiresome, frustrating, painful and fearful.  No one wants to see a child suffer, especially not there own.  Our hope is that through our fundraising efforts we can ease the burden on families going through this fight. Whether it is helping to pay the monthly bills or providing an entertaining distraction for a young patient during a prolonged clinic visit, our goal is to make this battle one that families do not have to fight alone.