On January 10, 2024, the Paula Takacs Foundation held its 2023 Grant Presentation, celebrating its many accomplishments and exciting research updates with its audience of sponsors, donors, Board members and officers, and research partners. Before the conclusion of this special evening, the foundation presented a check to Levine Cancer Institute and Levine Children’s Hospital in the amount of $300,000 for sarcoma research, the largest such grant check in its history. This brings our lifetime dollars raised to just under $4 million dollars!
While 15 years may seem like a long time, it’s an incredibly short span when it comes to measuring the success of a young cancer non-profit. Especially one dedicated to funding research in rare sarcoma cancers. But the Paula Takacs Foundation — founded in 2010 by Paula Takacs, who succumbed to the disease in 2014 — has made a meteoric rise to relevancy and impact with a mission that has already touched many thousands of lives.
To offer you a little more insight into the impact of our research grants, listen to these amazing remarks shared by Dr. Joshua Patt during his time at the podium: “…The two biggest successes of our entire research team this year were sarcoma studies directly funded by the Paula Takacs Foundation. And both of these studies were presented internationally. One in Banff, Alberta Canada at the Musculoskeletal Tumor Society, and one in Dublin, Ireland at the Connective Tissue Oncology Society.”
Researchers Dr. Colin Anderson and Dr. Megan Jagosky, who have dedicated their careers to sarcoma research, also shared their personal remarks, sparking even more excitement about the future of novel sarcoma therapies. Dr. Jagosky also described how the now-published study showing the success of using immunotherapy with chemotherapy in certain sarcoma subtypes became a universal treatment option directly as a result of PTF’s study funding. Listen to these physician-research comments.
During the presentation, Executive Director Susan Udelson also spoke about the foundation’s newest fund-raising program, Growing Hope Through Art. A glass installation by artist and sarcoma survivor Jake Pfeifer of Hot Glass Alley in Charlotte, NC scheduled to be unveiled this spring. The art will be displayed in a prominent location in Levine Cancer Institute for patients, doctors, and visitors to enjoy forever. Excitement is building as the public donation portal is now open. If you’re interested in donating to sarcoma research by sponsoring a piece of glass in the installation, click here.
The research grant presentation concluded with the a monumental announcement by the Paula Takacs Foundation! We proudly let our audience know that we had established a $2 million Paula Takacs Foundation Endowed Chair of Sarcoma Research at Levine Cancer Institute! This announcement enjoins us to the other prestigious medical facilities around the world with Endowed Chairs of Sarcoma Research, bringing needed attention and focus to a rare and severely under-researched disease.
What are we most proud of? This means that every single donor since inception of our foundation has now ensured Levine Cancer Institute will focus research on sarcoma FOREVER and EVER! Learn more about the Paula Takacs Endowed Chair of Sarcoma Research.
We know Paula would be so proud, and maybe not even surprised because it was her relentless commitment to her vision to change the outcome for sarcoma patients in Charlotte and around the world that catalyzed all these events.
Watch the full grant presentation program.
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