3/2/22: Today, our guest speaker was Kim MacNeill, President & Co-Founder of the Ross K. MacNeill Foundation. 
Prior to his death in March of 2013 of pediatric brain cancer, 11 year old Ross MacNeill asked his family to promise not to let other children go through what he went through.
 
Kim, his mother and co-founder the Foundation, embarked on a mission to raise funds for research into, and to increase awareness of pediatric brain cancer. 
  • Every day, 13 children in our country are diagnosed with a brain tumor. Brain tumors are the deadliest form of cancer in children, and are fatal to nearly 50%.
  • In the last 20 years, only 2 new drugs have been specifically developed to treat children with cancer, and that is not specific to brain cancer.

  • Only 4% of the National Cancer Institute's budget is directed to childhood cancer research, and that is not specific to brain cancer. To address this shortcoming, the Foundation supports the Children's Brain Tumor Tissue Consortium (CBTTC) consisting of 16 national and international institutions collaboratively researching all pediatric brain cancer types.