No More Kids with Cancer and SU2C to Fund New, Collaborative Pediatric Brain Cancer Dream Team - Stand Up To Cancer

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Posted May 11, 2017

No More Kids with Cancer and SU2C to Fund New, Collaborative Pediatric Brain Cancer Dream Team

No More Kids with Cancer and SU2C to Fund New, Collaborative Pediatric Brain Cancer Dream Team

No More Kids with Cancer Will Donate up to $6 Million from the “Mustard Challenge”

SU2C Will Match Dollar-For-Dollar Donations to the Mustard Challenge up to a total of $6 Million

May 11, 2017 – PHILADELPHIA – Today, No More Kids with Cancer, a childhood cancer research accelerator, announced a collaboration with Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C) to fund a new Pediatric Brain Cancer Dream Team. No More Kids with Cancer (NMKwC) will donate to SU2C up to a total of $6 million from the contributions made through its “Mustard Challenge.” SU2C will match the donation dollar-for-dollar up to a total of $6 million. The combined funds from NMKwC and SU2C will be used to fund a new, collaborative Pediatric Brain Cancer Dream Team.

The Mustard Challenge is a grassroots campaign that raises awareness and funds to discover safer, less toxic and more effective treatments for children with cancer – the leading cause of death by disease of children in the U.S. Why mustard? Today, children are commonly treated with 1950s drugs derived from the same compounds used in mustard gas, and only 3 drugs have been approved for childhood cancer since 1980. These ancient drugs are highly toxic and cause acute side effects – even death – as children become adults.

The Mustard Challenge launched on April 15, 2017, and ends on August 5, 2017, National Mustard Day. The Challenge dares people to eat a spoonful of hot mustard, film themselves, share their videos on social media, and donate to www.mustardchallenge.com. One hundred percent of donations from the Mustard Challenge will fund pediatric cancer research, and the first $6 million raised by the Mustard Challenge will be matched by SU2C to fund a new, collaborative Pediatric Brain Cancer Dream Team.

“We believe kids, like adults, deserve treatments that are safer, less toxic and more effective than therapies developed from as far back as the 1950s,” said No More Kids with Cancer co-founder Amy Summy. “Through funding groundbreaking research, we can expand treatment options, decrease suffering and improve outcomes for children with cancer. We’re asking people to take the Mustard Challenge, challenge others to do the same, and donate to mustardchallenge.com to fund important research.” “We are grateful to SU2C for their support, and believe their matching donation will create even more excitement and participation in the Mustard Challenge and help us fund a new Pediatric Brain Cancer Dream Team,” she added.

“We are excited to collaborate with No More Kids with Cancer on this important initiative,” said Stand Up To Cancer President and CEO Sung Poblete. “While significant progress has been made in the battle against pediatric brain cancer, the sad fact remains that too many children die from cancer, and long-term survival rates from brain cancer are poor.”

People can participate in the Mustard Challenge by taking the following steps:

• Film yourself eating a spoonful of hot mustard, challenge four friends to do the same, and donate to www.mustardchallenge.com.
• Post your video on your Facebook, Twitter and Instagram feed.
• Tag your friends, set your post status to “Public” and include #MustardChallenge #NoMoreKidswithCancer in your post.
• Most importantly, donate to mustardchallenge.com and help cure childhood cancer.
• Visit www.mustardchallenge.com for more detail.

##About No More Kids with Cancer

No More Kids with Cancer is a nonprofit research accelerator dedicated to funding groundbreaking childhood cancer research. We serve children with cancer – and the doctors and researchers working to save them – who urgently need alternatives to the 50s era, inhumane, side-effect-laden standard treatments used today. Collaborating with leading scientists – who share our belief that more research leads to more options – we’re working toward our vision of No More Kids with Cancer. One hundred percent of public donations fund groundbreaking research thanks to the generosity of private donors.

No More Kids with Cancer was inspired by Naya Summy, a determined, caring, intelligent and funny 11-year-old with a brilliant energy that rubbed off on anyone who knew her. She was diagnosed with high-risk medulloblastoma (brain cancer) when she was nine. She endured brain surgery, radiation and chemotherapy, only to relapse one year after her diagnosis. A cure didn’t exist for Naya. In less than two years, her disease overtook her body, and her brightness and smile left our world. Naya’s parents, Amy and Hank Summy, founded No More Kids with Cancer to carry out Naya’s goal to end childhood cancer.

For more information on No More Kids with Cancer, visit www.nomorekidswithcancer.org.

About the Stand Up To Cancer Initiative

Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C) raises funds to accelerate the pace of research to get new therapies to patients quickly and save lives now. SU2C, a program of the Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF), a 501(c)(3) charitable organization, was established in 2008 by film and media leaders who utilize the industry’s resources to engage the public in supporting a new, collaborative model of cancer research, and to increase awareness about cancer prevention as well as progress being made in the fight against the disease. As SU2C’s scientific partner, the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) and a Scientific Advisory Committee led by Nobel Laureate Phillip A. Sharp, PhD, conduct rigorous, competitive review processes to identify the best research proposals to recommend for funding, oversee grants administration, and provide expert review of research progress.

Current members of the SU2C Council of Founders and Advisors (CFA) include Katie Couric, Sherry Lansing, Lisa Paulsen, Rusty Robertson, Sue Schwartz, Pamela Oas Williams, Ellen Ziffren, and Kathleen Lobb. Noreen Fraser and the late Laura Ziskin are also co-founders.  Sung Poblete, Ph.D., R.N., has served as SU2C’s president since 2011.

For more information on Stand Up To Cancer, visit www.standup2cancer.org.

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Media Contacts

No More Kids with Cancer
Chris Blackman
610-888-6390
Cblackman1118@gmail.com

SU2C
Adam Miller, Rubenstein Communications
212-843-8032
amiller@rubenstein.com

 

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