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About Maddie's Mission
Our WHY
In 2019, we heard the words every parent fears:
"Your child has cancer."
Since Maddie was diagnosed, she has endured the following:
- 16 surgeries (including 5 brain surgeries)
- 6 weeks of high dose brain and spine radiation
- 4 months of chemotherapy
- 64 times under anesthesia
- 55 nights in the hospital
- 8 emergency room stays
- 34 MRI’s
- 127 PT/OT sessions
- 186 doctors appointments
- hundreds of “pokes” (port accesses, blood draws, blood transfusions)
- daily medications, injections, eye drops, and exercises
Thankfully Maddie has been in remission since August 2020. However, Maddie sees 6 specialty doctors to manage all of the side effects of treatment that impact her daily life.
Maddie and our family are on a mission to help end pediatric cancer. Through our mission, we hope to raise funds to further research so no child has to experience the devastating reality of cancer.
We aren't experts, but we found some!
Dr. Linda McAllister-Lucas and Dr. James Felker are experts in pediatric cancer research and pediatric cancer treatment, respectively, along with their team at UPMC Children’s Hospital. Dr. McAllister-Lucas and Dr. Felker are both extremely passionate, dedicated and emotionally invested in finding a cure to end pediatric cancer.
The Lemieux Foundation wanted to enhance the strong research already happening at UPMC Children's Hospital with a starting donation of $5M to establish the Mario Lemieux Institute for Pediatric Cancer Research.
Dr. McAllister-Lucas and Dr. Felker’s vision and goals for the Institute are to obtain additional NIH R01 Grants (this will help support an entire research program for 5 years), and our personal favorite goal – Put Dr. Felker out of a job! (Dr. Felker told us “I would love to be out of a job, as that means there is no more pediatric cancer!”)
Your donations go directly to generating new scientific breakthroughs and cutting-edge clinical trials that will take place in our back yard. The best part is, they can take what is learned in Pittsburgh and apply to not only patients at UPMC Children’s but network hospitals around the world.
