COLUMBIA, S.C. (WIS) – A nonprofit that primarily works with funding new pediatric cancer therapies has pledged the largest amount ever received to Prisma Health Midlands.
Curing Kids Cancer pledged $5 million to help fund new pediatric cancer research being led by Prisma Health Children’s Hospital in partnership with the College of Pharmacy at the University of South Carolina.
Along with the pledge, Curing Kids Cancer created a new endowment with Prisma Health Midlands Foundation called “Killian’s Hope for a United South Carolina,” named after Killian Owen, the late son of the non-profit’s co-founders, Gráinne and Clay Owen.
Killian passed away in 2003 at nine years old after battling leukemia.
The new endowment will help Prisma Health Children’s Hospital’s pediatric oncology team “develop and provide access to innovative therapeutics for children with cancer and to ensure they receive the best care and treatment available,” according to a statement from Prisma Health.
“Supporting this partnership between the children’s hospital and the university is a crucial step in our quest to fund cutting-edge treatments and, ultimately, cures for all childhood cancers,” Gráinne said in a statement. “Killian’s hope was that all children would one day be survivors, and that is our goal. As C.S. Lewis said, ‘You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.’”
Prisma Health Midlands is still trying to raise an additional $2.5 million to help support the endowment.
“This endowment creates the opportunity to redefine pediatric oncology care in South Carolina. It unites the largest health system in South Carolina, Prisma Health, with one of the best College of Pharmacy programs in the country at the University of South Carolina,” Dr. Stuart L. Cramer, the medical director for the Children’s Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders, said in a statement. “The overall goal is to increase collaboration not only locally but across the state, ensuring that all pediatric oncology patients are able to access the same innovative care no matter where they call home.”
To learn more about this pledge or to donate to the endowment, click here.
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