About The Pediatric Cancer Foundation

In 1991, two Tampa mothers faced every parent’s worst nightmare. Pediatric Cancer. Melissa Helms and Risa Tramel met while their infant daughters were undergoing treatments at St. Joseph’s Children’s Hospital in Tampa. Through advancements made from research, both Melissa and Risa’s daughters survived their battles with cancer and are now healthy young adults. However, with this experience, Melissa and Risa gained an awareness that would inspire them to continue fighting this disease.

In 1991, Melissa and Risa co-founded the Pediatric Cancer Foundation, a non-profit organization whose mission is to fund research that will lead to the elimination of childhood cancer worldwide.

For the past 18 years, the Foundation has funded more than $3.8 million to researchers. For the first 15 years, we funded seed grants at St. Joseph’s Children’s Hospital and H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute in Tampa, All Children’s Research Institute in St. Petersburg, the University of Florida in Gainesville, and the University of Miami School of Medicine.

Great headway was made with these projects, but the progress was slow. We realized that the only way to speed up the process was to encourage leading doctors and researchers to work together.

In 2005, the Pediatric Cancer Foundation formed The Sunshine Project, an innovative collaboration with one goal: to bring together the nation's top doctors and researchers to fast-track new treatments and increase the survival rate for children battling cancer.

The creation of The Sunshine Project, though simple in theory, was complex in nature. But by establishing this program, the Pediatric Cancer Foundation has developed a business model unlike any other in the field of pediatric cancer research. We have essentially capitalized on the strengths of researchers from all different fields of science and streamlined the process that has accelerated the development of new treatments.

Over the past three years, we have implemented the groundwork necessary to introduce three new drugs into clinical trials in 10 hospitals throughout the nation. New compounds have been, and continue to be, tested in these trials and hold great promise for children who have not experienced positive results under the standard treatment protocol.