Lombardi Receives $40,000 to Fight Pediatric Cancer
Lombardi received a generous donation from Hyundai Motor America at the annual Hyundai Hope on Wheels event held on July 15 at Lombardi.
As part of a program called Hyundai Hope on Wheels, Hyundai America will donate $1.3 million nationwide to fund research into childhood cancer. Hyundai representatives from the Washington area presented a $40,000 check to both Lombardi Director Louis Weiner and Chief of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Aziza T. Shad. The funds will be used for the childhood cancer survivorship program run by Shad. Since the establishment of the Hyundai Hope on Wheels program, over $265,000 has been donated to Lombardi to fund pediatric cancer research.
“Here at Lombardi we strive to ensure every person is recognized as an individual and that their treatment is tailored to who they are and what they need,” said Shad. “Gifts like we have received today make this customized care possible.”
Speaking at the event, Weiner said, “We are very lucky, and so are the children and parents in the audience to have Dr. Shad at Lombardi.”
Following remarks from both Weiner and Shad, 14-year-old Ryan Tomoff was introduced as a 2009 Hyundai Youth Ambassador. Tomoff was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia at the age of one, and has been treated at Lombardi for the last 13 years. “Kids shouldn’t have to be sick,” said Tomoff. “We should be out playing and growing up. But some kids get sick and this money we have been given gives us hope for a cure.”
Tomoff joined other childhood cancer patients following his speech in the handprint ceremony, where each child dipped his or her hands in finger paint and made handprints on a white Hyundai Santa Fe. “We are inspired everyday by the brave children we meet at our Handprint Ceremonies,” said Don Reilly, co-owner of Alexandria Hyundai. “When the kids place their handprints on the car, we are honoring their brave battles against cancer, commemorating their triumphs and sharing their hope for the future with other children and their families across the country.”
Following the ceremony, children and their parents gathered for a special reception in Lombardi. Brandon Johnson, who is currently in remission after a battle with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, said, “Without this money, we wouldn’t have hope for an end to cancer.”
By Tressa Kirby, excerpted from the GUMC Update
