Mom on a mission
FOR IMMEDATE RELEASE
June 2003
Mom on a Mission to Raise $1 Million for Cancer Research
Funding to Support Neuroblastoma Research Position at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
NEEDHAM, Mass. Denyse Dodd is a mom on a mission.
She is leading parents, friends and family members of children who have been treated for neuroblastoma in a five-year effort to raise $1 million and create a permanent neuroblastoma research position at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Neuroblastoma aggressively attacks the tissue of the nervous system primarily in children under the age of five.
Together with her husband Michael, Dodd founded the Friends For Life neuroblastoma endowed fellowship in February of this year. The Friends For Life fundraising team, which has 25 members, will ride in the Pan-Massachusetts Challenge (PMC) on August 2 and 3 and walk the Boston Marathon® Jimmy Fund Walk on September 21, to reach their extraordinary financial goal.
In honor of her daughter's health and the lifesaving care she received at the Jimmy Fund Clinic, Dodd is driven to help fund the research that she believes will eventually cure the disease.
Dodd sees no reason to stop fundraising until that statistic is 10 for 10. To that end, she has engaged Computer Associates (CA), where she is employed as a computer engineer, in the Friends For Life effort. The international computer company has pledged a total of $10,000 to the Pan-Mass Challenge, by underwriting the event's Lakeville waterstop and Pedal Partner Picnic on the first of the event's two days and by allocating $4,000 from the northeast region's breakfast fund to the Friends For Life PMC fundraising campaign. This contribution came at the direction of CA employees who voted to forgo their company sponsored breakfast for a week and asked their employer to forward the money to the PMC instead. CA is also matching employees financial contributions to the Friends For Life PMC team by 200 percent. Four CA employees will ride in the PMC on the Friends For Life team.
While Isabelle was undergoing treatment at the Jimmy Fund Clinic, CA arranged for Dodd to work from her Needham, Mass., home so she could care for her daughter, while continuing to receive a paycheck and the necessary health insurance that was financing the cancer treatments.
The Dodds became aware of the PMC last year, when, as a patient of the Jimmy Fund Clinic, Isabelle was chosen to be a PMC Pedal Partner. A team of cyclists from EMC, the data warehouse giant, rode in the 192-mile event in Isabelle's honor and raised $90,000 for the Jimmy Fund. Denyse, Michael, and Isabelle and eight-year-old Oliver Dodd, met the cyclists at the Lakeville waterstop during the 2002 ride. Young Oliver manned a lemonade stand at the waterstop, selling cold drinks to thirsty cyclists in order to buy Beanie Babies to give to children in the hospital when he visited his sister.
The Pan-Massachusetts Challenge
The PMC, presented by the Boston Red Sox, is the nation's original fundraising bike-a-thon and today raises more money than any other athletic fundraising event in the country. It is also the most cost efficient. With more than 92 cents of each dollar raised going directly to the Jimmy Fund, the PMC has contributed more than $86 million to lifesaving cancer research and care at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute since its 1980 inception. On August 2 and 3, 2003, nearly 3,800 cyclists will travel six different routes, logging between 89 and 192 miles over one or two days, through 46 scenic Massachusetts towns from Sturbridge and Wellesley to Bourne and Provincetown. Their goal is to raise $16 million, 1 million more than they raised in 2002, elevating the PMC's total Jimmy Fund donation to more than $100 million. New England Cable News and MFS Investment Management are among the PMC's 200 corporate and in-kind sponsors. For more information about the PMC, call 800-WE-CYCLE or visit www.pmc.org.
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CONTACT: Jackie Herskovitz 617-269-7171 jackie@pmc.org
June 2003
June 2003
Mom on a Mission to Raise $1 Million for Cancer Research
Funding to Support Neuroblastoma Research Position at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
NEEDHAM, Mass. Denyse Dodd is a mom on a mission.
She is leading parents, friends and family members of children who have been treated for neuroblastoma in a five-year effort to raise $1 million and create a permanent neuroblastoma research position at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Neuroblastoma aggressively attacks the tissue of the nervous system primarily in children under the age of five.
Together with her husband Michael, Dodd founded the Friends For Life neuroblastoma endowed fellowship in February of this year. The Friends For Life fundraising team, which has 25 members, will ride in the Pan-Massachusetts Challenge (PMC) on August 2 and 3 and walk the Boston Marathon® Jimmy Fund Walk on September 21, to reach their extraordinary financial goal.
Dodd's daughter, Isabelle, had been diagnosed with neuroblastoma in 2001 when she was just 19 months old. Today the toddler is in complete remission. "Finding out your baby has cancer is a parent's worst nightmare, Dodd says. But to see Isabelle today, you'd think it was all a dream. She looks completely healthy.
In honor of her daughter's health and the lifesaving care she received at the Jimmy Fund Clinic, Dodd is driven to help fund the research that she believes will eventually cure the disease.
"As recently as 1990, there was no proven treatment for this disease, Dodd says. Today, seven of every 10 children who are diagnosed with neuroblastoma go into remission due to new treatments."
Dodd sees no reason to stop fundraising until that statistic is 10 for 10. To that end, she has engaged Computer Associates (CA), where she is employed as a computer engineer, in the Friends For Life effort. The international computer company has pledged a total of $10,000 to the Pan-Mass Challenge, by underwriting the event's Lakeville waterstop and Pedal Partner Picnic on the first of the event's two days and by allocating $4,000 from the northeast region's breakfast fund to the Friends For Life PMC fundraising campaign. This contribution came at the direction of CA employees who voted to forgo their company sponsored breakfast for a week and asked their employer to forward the money to the PMC instead. CA is also matching employees financial contributions to the Friends For Life PMC team by 200 percent. Four CA employees will ride in the PMC on the Friends For Life team.
"Computer Associates as a company, and all of my colleagues, have been so wonderful to our family, Dodd says."
While Isabelle was undergoing treatment at the Jimmy Fund Clinic, CA arranged for Dodd to work from her Needham, Mass., home so she could care for her daughter, while continuing to receive a paycheck and the necessary health insurance that was financing the cancer treatments.
"There is no monetary value you can attach to the kind of support CA gave our family when Isabelle was sick, Dodd says. Now they are supporting us and the cause even more."
The Dodds became aware of the PMC last year, when, as a patient of the Jimmy Fund Clinic, Isabelle was chosen to be a PMC Pedal Partner. A team of cyclists from EMC, the data warehouse giant, rode in the 192-mile event in Isabelle's honor and raised $90,000 for the Jimmy Fund. Denyse, Michael, and Isabelle and eight-year-old Oliver Dodd, met the cyclists at the Lakeville waterstop during the 2002 ride. Young Oliver manned a lemonade stand at the waterstop, selling cold drinks to thirsty cyclists in order to buy Beanie Babies to give to children in the hospital when he visited his sister.
"Oliver will be back again, doing everything he can to support his sister and other children Dodd says."
The Pan-Massachusetts Challenge
The PMC, presented by the Boston Red Sox, is the nation's original fundraising bike-a-thon and today raises more money than any other athletic fundraising event in the country. It is also the most cost efficient. With more than 92 cents of each dollar raised going directly to the Jimmy Fund, the PMC has contributed more than $86 million to lifesaving cancer research and care at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute since its 1980 inception. On August 2 and 3, 2003, nearly 3,800 cyclists will travel six different routes, logging between 89 and 192 miles over one or two days, through 46 scenic Massachusetts towns from Sturbridge and Wellesley to Bourne and Provincetown. Their goal is to raise $16 million, 1 million more than they raised in 2002, elevating the PMC's total Jimmy Fund donation to more than $100 million. New England Cable News and MFS Investment Management are among the PMC's 200 corporate and in-kind sponsors. For more information about the PMC, call 800-WE-CYCLE or visit www.pmc.org.
###
CONTACT: Jackie Herskovitz 617-269-7171 jackie@pmc.org
June 2003
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