More than 200 people participated in Saturday’s CureSearch walk around Centennial Campus to raise money for child cancer research.
CureSearch is a Maryland-based nonprofit which supports children’s enrollment in lifesaving clinical trials and provides information and resources to the families and support systems of children with cancer.
“Part of the need [for CureSearch] is that the majority of treatments out there are aimed at adults so there is really kind of a lack of funding and sometimes awareness about children’s cancer across the spectrum,” said Zachary Feuerherd, a community development manager for CureSearch.
Participants attended the CureSearch walk for many different reasons. Some were parents with young children battling cancer, such as Pamela Levi, whose son, Zach, recently relapsed after a two-year remission. Zach suffers from neuroblastoma, a malignant form of cancer that develops from nerve tissue.
Beth Lippert has worked in childhood oncology for 33 years. Lippert said she participated in the walk because of the good she sees coming from cancer research.
“CureSearch is awesome because when I first started out the cure rate for childhood leukemia was like 10 percent, and now leukemia’s cure rate is like 95 percent,” Lippert said. “That is all from research.”
The event began with informative speeches, CureSearch announcements and a quick description of where the teams would be walking. Before beginning the walk around Centennial Campus, participants stood together in solidarity to remember their loved ones who lost the battle to childhood cancer.
Feuerherd said CureSearch raises funds through individual donors and major gifts, but the majority of proceeds come in through walk programs.
Lippert said she understands the importance of children’s participation in medically proven clinical trials as well as providing the funding to be sure they are able to do so.
“Children participate in these clinical trials and that’s why their outcome is better,” Lippert said “Adults don’t usually participate in clinical trials and their outcome is a lot worse.”
According to the American Cancer Society, about 80 percent to 90 percent of adults survive acute lymphocytic leukemia, while the number of children who survive the disease is more than 90 percent.
CureSearch holds about 60 fundraising walks all across the country each year to help raise money to support children with cancer.
“We do [a walk] obviously here in Raleigh. We have one in Charlotte, but they go all the way to places like San Francisco and Chicago,” Feuerherd said.
Feuerherd said he enjoys meeting the participants of the eight different fundraising walks he oversees in the mid-Altantic region.
“My favorite part is getting to connect with the families, meeting them face to face and getting to hear their stories,” Feuerherd said.