GAINESVILLE, Fla. –– Twelve-year-old Bonnie Freeman’s
dying request 25 years ago to spare children the pain and agony
of cancer now has more possibilities of being answered thanks
to the efforts of an organization created to fulfill her wish.
STOP!
Children’s Cancer, Inc. 
founded
in 1981 in Gainesville, announced at its 25th anniversary
fund-raising gala Saturday a donation of $1 million to the University
of Florida to
establish The STOP! Children’s Cancer/Bonnie
R. Freeman Professorship for Pediatric Oncology Research
in the College of Medicine.
“There’s no gift great enough to put an immediate stop to cancer in children,” said Howard Freeman, co-founder of STOP! Children’s Cancer Inc. and father of the late Bonnie Freeman who died of cancer in 1983, “but we feel that this research professorship at UF is a huge step in the right direction.”
In its 25 years of fundraising Stop! Children’s Cancer Inc. has provided more than $1.3 million toward pediatric cancer research projects, research scholars and equipment in the Department of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology in UF’s College of Medicine. This latest gift is the first that will create an endowment.
“STOP! Children’s Cancer’s commitment to
research in pediatric cancer is motivation to all of us at
UF in all fields and all disciplines,” said UF
President Bernie Machen .“The
courage of Bonnie Freeman’s
expressed wishes is clearly evident in this gift.”
Income from the endowment will support a professorship in UF’s Department of Pediatrics focusing on translational or laboratory research of childhood cancers.
“The recruitment of a world-class researcher in the
area of pediatric leukemias will enable us to develop new treatments
for those children, for current therapies are not enough,” said Terrence
R. Flotte , Nemours Eminent Scholar Professor and chair
of the Department of Pediatrics in UF’s College of Medicine.
The STOP! Children’s Cancer gift is eligible for matching funds from the State of Florida Trust Fund for Major Gifts. The gift also counts toward UF’s Faculty Challenge Initiative, which was launched in 2004 with a goal of raising $150 million to give faculty the tools they need to enhance classroom instruction and conduct world-class research. The Faculty Challenge is part of a plan to make UF one of the nation’s premier research universities.
Credits
Contact Chris Brazda, (352)
392-1633
Contact Julie Hill, (352)
377-2622
