I hope everyone in our City of Hope® community had a restful July 4 holiday. Amid the festivities and fireworks, I found myself thinking about freedom.
For nearly 250 years, Americans have agreed on humans’ unalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. But what happens when cancer threatens to take it all away? What does freedom mean then? And what can any of us do about it?
None of us can control cancer. But many people are working together every day to defeat it. As a City of Hope supporter, you are right there with us. Let me share three ways your generosity helps restore freedom to our patients and families.
Freedom from fear. A cancer diagnosis opens a floodgate of anxiety: Can I beat this? How bad will it get? Who will take care of my family? Will my cancer come back? Here, philanthropy accelerates the pace of research so we can give more people the hope they deserve — through early detection, precise diagnosis and new treatments like an incredible cancer-stopping pill developed by Linda Malka, Ph.D. Philanthropy also underpins our whole-person approach to care, so that people like Kaifan Zhao, a supportive care nurse practitioner, can help give vulnerable patients peace of mind.
Freedom to innovate. City of Hope attracts some of the brightest minds in cancer care. That’s because your support gives our leaders and scientists the resources to be bold and to innovate in ways not possible elsewhere. In this newsletter, you can learn more about amazing innovations in CAR T cell therapy, cancer-killing viruses and AI-powered robotic surgery, and how our leaders are building a scalable infrastructure to make clinical trials and highly specialized cancer expertise available to more patients across the country.
Freedom to say “yes” to powerful projects. Captain Rob Newson knows more than most about freedom … and cancer. He’s a retired United States Navy SEAL Captain, cancer survivor and Chief Community Officer for Soteria Precision Medicine Foundation. Captain Newson and Soteria are partnering with City of Hope’s Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) to pilot a first-of-its-kind program to improve cancer care for the courageous service members of our U.S. military. This new program, supported by philanthropy, aims to find out what’s driving disproportionate cancer rates in U.S. military members and how we can stop it.
At City of Hope, philanthropy is not supplemental; it is fundamental. Your generosity powers discovery, expands access, accelerates cures and supports every dimension of healing.
Thank you for all the ways you let freedom ring.
With gratitude,
Kristin J. Bertell
Chief Philanthropy Officer