Team Fundraising Dollars at Work: October 2010

As the largest fundraising program of the Children’s Tumor Foundation, NF Endurance plays a critical role in funding research that is advancing treatments for all individuals living with NF. Funds raised by NF Endurance better the lives of those who face the daily challenges of the disorder, and because the Foundation – awarded Charity Navigator’s four star (highest) rating – target our research for maximum return, those funds are multiplied by industry and government investment.

So in the spring of 2010, as NF Endurance members gathered in San Diego to run the Rock & Roll marathon, the $30,000 their hard work and commitment raised was the subject of careful consideration by the Foundation’s Chief Scientific Officer and Research Advisory Board. Eventually the decision was made to invest those funds in a gene therapy study conducted by Dr. Jonathan Chernoff at Fox Chase Cancer Center. Dr. Chernoff’s study has gone on to receive $150,000 in follow-on funding in little more than a year and has shown promise as a treatment for plexiform neurofibromas.

And when NFE runners gathered at the starting line for the Seattle Rock & Roll marathon in June fo 2010, the funds they raised were pointed toward a study Dr. Marianne James proposed to treat schwannomas and meningiomas with the drug rapamycin. Dr. James, of Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, is a former recipient of funding from the Foundation’s Young Investigator Award, also funded by members of the NFE in marathons past. Dr. James’ study has shown very promising early results and follow-on funding is very likely upon the study’s completion.

In all, funding for the Foundation’s Drug Discovery Initiative program has returned more than $4M in follow-on funding from our investment of $400,000; the Young Investigator Award program helped lead to the discovery of the genes that cause NF1 and NF2, and continues to discover and support thought and research leaders in NF; the Foundation’s Schwannomatosis Awards have led to the discovery of a candidate gene and are pioneering the field of schwannomatosis research; and each NF Endurance member has played a critical role in these advances.

A dollar raised by NFE is a dollar invested in NF research. A dollar that will someday become five or ten dollars of investment in NF research. A dollar that will lead us to treatments and someday a cure. Join NF Endurance and RuNFor a Reason, run for a cure.