Twelve years ago, one of my son's best friends, and the son of dear friends of ours, died of complications from Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML), one month before his 12th birthday. Ben fought first ALL, and then AML, for six years. Throughout his entire fifth grade year, as he faced not just one, but two bone marrow transplants, his spirit was undaunted.
Since that day, Ben's parents and a group of dedicated friends have made it our mission to make sure that children like Ben, who fight a cancer that comes back even after a bone marrow transplant, have a better chance at survival. And we are succeeding. For the past 10 years, we have partnered with Children's National in Washington, DC, where Ben was treated, to provide seed funding for cutting edge research into cancer treatment and immunotherapy, raising money through a neighborhood run that now averages more than 1100 participants. All of the money raised by the run (other than the costs for the timing company and other run expenses) goes to Children's National to fund this research.
This is the 10th and final year that we are doing the run. In 2020, we had to postpone the run, but still managed to raise and donate more than $100,000 for Children's. This fall, we're holding our final run and all we need is to raise $136,000, which will put us over $1 million DONATED to Children's National to fund this critical research that is changing children's lives. Not only will your donation help us reach our $1 million goal, but most importantly, your donation will expand access to the RESOLVE clinical trial to new patients at high risk of relapse, and start the readily available protocol for patients for whom bone marrow transplant isn’t an option. You can provide hope to these families!
The ability to fund new research has changed dramatically over the years. Young researchers can reliably get small government grants to get started, but the next level of funding requires a vast body of data and research. Philanthropy is the only way to bridge the gap so that these researchers have a shot at the NIH funding that will actually bring new treatments to patients. Ben's Run is proud to be a real catalyst in gathering the body of data and research that in turn attracts even greater dollars to see these ideas through - your money actually multiplies exponentially as this critical research we fund gets picked up and funded by even larger grants. Together we can change treatments and provide new hope for children and their families battling cancer.
To see the impact that Ben's Run and your donation have on the lives of children with cancer, read the latest Impact Report from Children's National and Ben's Run.
If you can't make a donation at this point, help us reach our goal by sharing this page on Facebook and Twitter. Even better send an email to friends you think might be interested in contributing and include a link to this page. Thank you for your generosity!
