IMPACT ACROSS the INDIANA CANCER COMMUNITY

The Heroes Foundation strives to make a heroic impact on cancer patients, families affected by a diagnosis, and their loved ones and caregivers.

This community includes cancer researchers. Seed funding is critical to enable faculty at medical research institutions to pursue their work. Without this startup funding, they are incapable of obtaining larger grants and funding sources, which is why the Heroes Foundation medical advisory committee focuses on uncovering and funding the most promising projects at research institutions across Indiana.

The Heroes Foundation is very strategic when choosing which partner programs and researchers to support. The following represents a portion of the impact made in 2022.

The Heroes Foundation made a $15K gift to the Oncology Patient Assistance Fund at Community Health Network to purchase gift cards and to fund transportation services and short-term housing for cancer patients. $30K was provided to the CompleteLife program at IU Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center to fund art therapy programming and cancer support groups.

The Heroes Foundation’s Catherine Peachey Fund provided $100K to Tarah J. Ballinger, MD, at the Indiana University School of Medicine to study the link between exercise and breast cancer incidence.

Nawal Kassem, MD, at the Indiana University School of Medicine was named the latest Susan J. Patrick Heroes Cancer Research Fund Fellow. She will receive $14K annually from 2023 to 2025 to study hereditary cancer through cascade testing.

Through the Catherine Peachey Fund, $100K was provided to Dr. Laurie Littlepage at the Harper Cancer Research Institute at the University of Notre Dame to pursue her promising research on the mechanisms of cancer progression.

Through Team JOEY, we announced a three-year, $30K funding commitment to Jennifer Belsky, DO, MS, to further her research on decreasing the detrimental side effects children and teens experience while receiving cancer therapy.

The Heroes Foundation completed a $50K gift to remodel a patient room at Peyton Manning Children’s Hospital. Team JOEY volunteers delivered 500 LEGO sets to Riley Hospital (Indianapolis), Peyton Manning Children’s Hospital (Indianapolis) and Lutheran Children’s Hospital (Fort Wayne) to give to their young cancer patients.

A gift of $70K allowed researchers at the IU Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center, led by Hari Nakshatri, Ph.D., Anna Maria Storniolo, MD, and Josh Manghelli, DO, to create an initial infrastructure to begin exploring male breast cancer.

Team Heroes, the cycling/running/triathlon team associated with the Heroes Foundation, raced locally and across the country and participated in, volunteered for and gave to the Heroes Foundation, including through their annual Team JOEY LEGO Collection ride in July.