University of Louisville receives $50,000 grant for childhood cancer research

The St. Baldrick's Foundation, a volunteer-driven and donor-centered charity dedicated to raising money for childhood cancer research, has awarded a one-year, $50,000 grant to the University of Louisville (UofL). This grant is one of 40 infrastructure grants awarded as part of the foundation's fall grant cycle, totaling more than $2.5 million and surpassing last year's total awarded during this same period.

The University of Louisville Department of Pediatrics' Division of Hematology, Oncology and Stem Cell Transplantation makes approximately 100 new diagnoses per year. One of the primary goals of the division is to offer novel therapies to allow patients to receive treatment within the region and not have to travel elsewhere. This grant will provide support to hire a nurse coordinator for neuroblastoma and sarcoma patients on clinical trials, providing them with additional access to those trials.

"The St. Baldrick's Foundation grant will help children diagnosed with cancer to receive the best care here in Louisville," said Kerry Powell McGowan, M.D., pediatric oncologist at UofL. "With the grant we hope to help more children and their families stay close to home to get the treatment they need."

The grant to UofL is part of a series of grants that, combined with the more than $24.7 million awarded in July to fund cutting-edge research, brings the St. Baldrick's Foundation's funding total to more than $27.2 million awarded in 2014. 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.

"These grants are critically important to saving children's lives, and would not be possible without our dedicated volunteers and generous donors who believe kids deserve better than medicine is currently able to provide," said Kathleen Ruddy, chief executive officer for the St. Baldrick's Foundation.