Bon Secours receives $50,000 grant for cancer program
November 22, 2022
The Bon Secours St. Francis Cancer Center at sunrise
St. Baldrick’s Foundation Awards Grants to Bring Life-Saving Clinical Trials Closer to Home
The St. Baldrick’s Foundation has announced its 2022 grant recipients, and Bon Secours St. Francis Cancer Center is the only South Carolina health organization to make the list.
Bon Secours was awarded $50,000 which will be used to fund a full-time clinical research nurse coordinator, devoted to patients in its Adolescent & Young Adult (AYA) Cancer Care program. The staff member will help ensure every patient is screened for research trials, which are often their best hope for a cure.
“Approximately 80% of the more than 90,000 AYAs diagnosed annually in the U.S. are seen and/or cared for in community settings. By keeping these expanded care options closer to home, we avoid uprooting patients and their families during an already disruptive time in their lives,” said Dr. Hal Crosswell, Director of the AYA program at Bon Secours.
The St. Baldrick’s Foundation is the nation’s largest charitable funder of childhood cancer research grants. This year, it awarded more than $1.2 million in infrastructure grants to 27 different organizations across the country, allowing them to expand patient access to pediatric cancer clinical trials and to accelerate scientific discoveries to conquer kids’ cancer.
Made possible by St. Baldrick’s volunteers and donors who contribute generously, these grants are critical to ensuring that more kids are treated on clinical trials – often a child’s last chance for a cure.
Clinical trials are the last stage of research which lead to new approved drugs and/or therapies that improve the quality of life for patients and survivors, as well as the long-term survival of children with cancer. The Foundation’s infrastructure grants support programs and the personnel necessary to open and coordinate clinical trials and provide survivorship care.
This series of grants brings the total of research funded by the St. Baldrick’s Foundation to more than $324 million and 1,701 grants since 2005. The next round of grants will be announced in Spring 2023.
About Bon Secours
Bon Secours St. Francis Health System is part of Bon Secours Mercy Health, one of the 20 largest health systems in the United States and the fifth-largest Catholic health system in the country. The ministry’s quality, compassionate care is provided by more than 60,000 associates serving communities in Florida, Kentucky, Maryland, New York, Ohio, South Carolina, and Virginia, as well as throughout Ireland. Bon Secours St. Francis Health System provides compassionate medical care to thousands of area residents through Bon Secours St. Francis Downtown and Bon Secours St. Francis Eastside, as well as a network of primary and specialty care practices, and ambulatory care sites across the Greenville region. The mission of Bon Secours St. Francis Health System is to extend the compassionate ministry of Jesus by improving the health and well-being of our communities and bring good help to those in need, especially people who are poor, dying and underserved. For more information, visit BonSecours.com.
About St. Baldrick’s Foundation
Every 2 minutes, a child somewhere is diagnosed with cancer. In the U.S., 1 in 5 will not survive. The St. Baldrick’s Foundation, the largest charitable funder of childhood cancer research grants, is on a mission to Conquer Kids’ Cancer by supporting the most promising research to find cures and better treatments for all childhood cancers. When you give to St. Baldrick’s, you don’t just give to one hospital – you support virtually every institution with the expertise to treat kids with cancer across the U.S. St. Baldrick’s ensures that children fighting cancer now — and those diagnosed in the future — will have access to the most cutting-edge treatment, by supporting every stage of research, from new ideas in the lab to the training of the next generation of researchers , to life-saving clinical trials. Visit StBaldricks.org and help #ConquerKidsCancer.
