2-05-2024 10:42pm

CANCERFREE KIDS EXPANDS TO COLUMBUS

Beth Callahan Editor

Submitted Photo of Melissa Jackson

Submitted from Game Day Communications

LOVELAND, OH -- CancerFree KIDS, the organization that provides grants to high-risk/high-reward childhood cancer research projects in the crucial early stages, has named Melissa Jackson as its first-ever market director in Columbus, Ohio.

Jackson has experience in public health and non-profit management, serving in a variety of leadership roles at the Coalition Against Childhood Cancer, Ohio Department of Health and Cancer Support Community Center Ohio. She earned a bachelor’s degree from Wright State University and a master’s degree from Southern New Hampshire University. Jackson resides in Powell, Ohio with her family.

CancerFree KIDS recently announced the largest investment in pediatric cancer research grants in its 20-year history, further funding innovative pediatric cancer research in the state of Ohio. This year, CancerFree KIDS will invest $1.25 million to fund 21 research grants at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. This brings CancerFree KIDS' total grant investment to $9.45 million, funding 215 research projects since its inception in 2002.

This series of grants continues CancerFree KIDS' mission to invest in the severely underfunded world of pediatric cancer. New ideas need money to grow, and these grants will assist in early stage research, allowing scientists to prove their concept, secure additional funding, find new treatment therapies and eventually end childhood cancer.

To date, CancerFree KIDS researchers have received more than $78 million in follow-on funding as a result of their work funded by a CancerFree KIDS grant. CancerFree KIDS-funded projects have also been the basis for our researchers to publish 283 publications, earn 44 patents, conduct 19 clinical trials, create three companies and develop two FDA-approved drugs.