Dear Friends,

In 2014 and 2015, Alex’s Lemonade Stand Childhood Cancer Foundation (ALSF -www.alexslemonade.org) was gracious enough to provide my laboratory with over $350,000 in financial support.  In addition, the ALSF is now considering a new proposal of ours that will provide an additional $550,000 to directly treat children with brain cancer.  We are deeply grateful to this tremendous organization and its commitment to curing cancer in children. This September, the ALSF will again be holding its annual Million Mile fundraiser. As a way to thank its grant-funded scientists, the ALSF will match dollar for dollar the amount of money my laboratory raises during the fundraiser - you give $1, the ALSF will send us $2. I am very proud to say that your exceptional generosity in 2014 and AGAIN in 2015 allowed my laboratory to be THE top external ALSF fundraiser in the United States!  This year, with your help, we’d like to make it a three-peat.

Childhood cancers are among the most underfunded diseases that afflict kids in America today, and foundations like the ALSF fund treatments and cures for a variety of childhood cancers that might otherwise go largely unnoticed. The ALSF continues to be the major funder of my laboratory’s pediatric brain cancer clinical research program, and your donation to the ALSF on our behalf will go a long way toward providing hope to parents and kids who currently have none.

Last year we held this fundraiser in memory of Dr. Robert Arceci who was killed in a traffic accident in June of 2015 (http://www.stbaldricks.org/blog/post/farewell-to-a-giant-remembering-dr-robert-arceci/). Bob was one of the most famous and respected pediatric oncologists in the US and a specialist in childhood brain tumors, leukemias, and sarcomas. Bob was also a dear friend and close scientific collaborator. He had worked very hard toward the implementation of this clinical trial and was really looking forward to its ultimate fruition. I still miss Bob terribly and want to honor his 40-year commitment to pediatric cancer research by holding the fundraiser in his memory again.

The basic work is done. This is the year that all our hard work pays off and really sick kids start getting treated for real. It’s up to all of us to drag this over the finish line. No one else is going to do it.

With love,

William