HOPE – unit for early clinical trials gives hope to children with cancer
Cancer is the leading cause of death amongst children and adolescents in Sweden. The healthcare services are doing a fantastic job treating children with cancer and 85 % of these survive, however this means that 15 % won’t make it. HOPE:s vision is that all children will survive cancer with a good quality of life. The HOPE unit opened in 2016.
A collaboration between the foundation Entrepreneurs for Good, The Swedish Childhood Cancer Foundation, Karolinska Institutet and the Karolinska University Hospital has resulted in the opening of the HOPE-unit (Hematological Oncological Clinical Trials Unit) at the Astrid Lindgren Children's Hospital. "HOPE is an important initiative in the effort to cure children with cancer" says Henrik Grönberg, Professor of Cancer Epidemiology at Karolinska Institutet.
The initiative for HOPE comes from Johanna Hoffstedt and Fredrik Malm, who started the foundation Entrepreneurs for Good. Their son Nelson was diagnosed with cancer when he was three years old. Staff at the Astrid Lindgren Children's Hospital did it all they could to save him, but in the end Nelson lost his fight against cancer.
We are seeking support for HOPE in the start-up and implementation phase, which will last for five years. After this, the aim is for HOPE to be mainly self-financing through industry and academic clinical trials. Until then, funds of 25 million SEK are needed.
On the 26th September 2016 several of Sweden's entrepreneurs and philanthropists were invited to “HOPE - a conversation about childhood cancer, philanthropy and hope” in the Aula Medica at Karolinska Institutet. It was the start of a fundraising campaign with the goal of securing HOPE's funding for the next 5 years. The initiators contributed 5 million SEK and since then gifts have been streaming in. So far we have raised a total of 12,5 million SEK. We now have 12,5 million SEK to go in order to reach the target of 25 million SEK.
Would you like to join us in supporting HOPE? You can give your gift directly via the web. There are also other ways to give a gift to research at Karolinska Institutet.
If you have any questions about the project or would like to discuss a gift, please contact Esther Edlundh-Rose at the Development Office.
Email: esther.edlundh-rose@ki.se
Telephone: +46-8-524 824 38