Andy posted Max's story in the The Story Room tonight, click here.

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It's here...your 2009 Holiday Shopping Guide to Support Childhood Cancer. Click the snowman to go spend....

Curing Childhood Cancer - through treatments and care

As you probably know by now, Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation is dedicated to finding a cure for all childhood cancers. While on the surface, this statement seems to allude to medical research (which of course is true and vitally important), there is so much more that goes into the everyday lives of children and their families fighting the disease. In 2007, in an ongoing effort to improve the lives and care of kids with cancer, we introduced a Nurse Researcher Grant Program.

These grants are given to nurses to help them find better ways to care for children undergoing cancer treatment. If you have ever been in the hospital for even an hour, you probably know that the person you see the most is your nurse. Nurses have a unique view into what patients go through, and in the case of childhood cancer patients, this is no different. Nurses have an understanding of what simple changes can make a huge difference in recovery times, and overall comfort levels.

Here’s what I mean:

During the first year of this program, one of our grant recipients had the idea that cancer patients’ recovery times could be quicker if their sleep was uninterrupted. We all know that sleep can be your body’s best defense, but when a patient is staying in the hospital they are often woken up in the middle of the night. If they were allowed to sleep uninterrupted throughout the night, without their trash being emptied, or being disturbed for medicine and procedures that could wait until morning, would they have a better recovery time?

Another grant recipient looked into the impact of a teen weekend on the quality of life of adolescents with cancer. These kids had certainly seen other kids with cancer, but they were likely in hospitals or a setting that wasn’t conducive to sharing life experiences. What if they were taken out of that element and allowed to just be? She found out that while they didn’t spend large amounts of time discussing their diagnosis, they did share information and experiences that helped them to better process their own cancer. This study helps to better understand the overall needs of this population, and the subtle ways that we can make their lives better.

Having gone through this battle ourselves with Alex, we of course want to see her dream of a cure for all childhood cancer, but we also want to simply make the lives of cancer fighters better in any way that we possibly can. Nursing grants help us to garner tangible results, and results that can make a difference in the lives of these patients now, while the medical researchers are out there doing their job as well. Check out our website for some more information on our Nurse Researcher Grant programs and of course to read about the most recent recipients!

- Liz Scott, Alex's Mother

St. Baldrick’s Foundation Exciting Grants Update

where the money goes

As you know, we shave heads to honor kids with cancer by raising awareness and funds. But the most important thing we can do to honor them is to fund research to save lives – now and in years to come. So in honor of all children with cancer, we wanted to take a minute to let you know about some grants we are currently funding that might be of special interest to you.

In 2009, St. Baldrick’s supporters have made possible more than $12 million in pediatric oncology research grants.

There were 12 recipients of the fall infrastructure grants, which are designed to provide institutions with resources to make more research possible and treat more kids on clinical trials, their best hope for a cure. In June, the foundation also funded 10 new and 13 continuing St. Baldrick’s Fellows; 9 new and 12 continuing St. Baldrick’s Scholars, and 16 other grants for research projects. In all, 72 grants were made in 2009, focusing on finding cures for childhood cancers and improving the lives of patients and survivors.

Applications for spring 2010 grants will be available in mid-January.

for more information

Visit StBaldricks.org or contact Jane Hoppen at Jane@StBaldricks.org or 919-341-0507 to learn how you can help Shave the Way to Conquer Kids’ Cancer!