Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation Awards New Nursing Research Fellowship, provides grant for early career nurse research

Inaugural grant for fellowship awarded to nurse researcher from University of Wisconsin – Madison 

Philadelphia, PA (January 6, 2016) – Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation (ALSF), a nonprofit dedicated to finding cures for all kids with cancer, created a new grant to fund a nursing research fellowship in 2015. The Nursing Research Fellowship was awarded to Kathleen Montgomery, PhD, of University of Wisconsin – Madison. The grant will provide over $92,000 over the course of two years for the fellowship. 

As the first recipient of the fellowship and grant, Montgomery will be researching symptom assessment in children with advanced cancer in order to better connect patients with their healthcare team and improve the symptom experience during the end of life.

The Nursing Research Fellowship aims to support an early career nurse researcher to initiate and lead a multi-site research project focused on the care and quality of life of pediatric cancer patients. He or she will be guided in their project by a mentor and will complete a comprehensive training program.

Since inception, Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation has been dedicated to its mission of finding better treatments and ultimately cures for all kids with cancer. Recognizing early on the role that nurses play in the quality of life and care for childhood cancer patients and their families, the Foundation made a commitment to support the ideas and research of nurses, introducing the first Nurse Researcher Grants in 2007.

“For the nearly seven years that my daughter Alex battled cancer, nurses played an integral role not only in her treatment, but in her quality of care and life,” said Jay Scott, Co-Executive Director of Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation. “Nurses have a unique perspective into a young patient’s quality of care and perhaps most importantly quality of life. Through this grant and fellowship, we can enable nurses to use this knowledge to make a difference in the lives of children battling cancer.”