‘Research Means Hope’
A local family of UF alumni support pediatric cancer research at UF Health through their non-profit foundation.
Bonnie Freeman's letter
On a blue sheet of paper featuring hand-drawn pastel balloons soaring through the clouds, a 12-year-old girl writes in neat cursive lettering. The note describes the young person’s aspirations for the future, written one week before she passed away from cancer.
Bonnie Freeman’s letter, dated July 3, 1983, explained the mission of Stop Children’s Cancer, a Gainesville nonprofit that seeks to prevent, control and cure cancer in children. Thirty-four years later, Stop Children’s Cancer works closely with researchers at UF Health to advance the cure rate of pediatric cancers through clinical trials.
Howard Freeman says his organization, which he founded with his wife, Laurel, and their daughters, Carolyne and Bonnie, is driven by Bonnie’s desire to help other families dealing with the trauma of a pediatric cancer diagnosis.
“I’ll never forget the day I drove to Bonnie’s pediatrician to hear that she may have leukemia. From that point on, my family’s lives were changed,” Freeman says. “Two to three weeks after she was diagnosed, Bonnie came to us and said, ‘Why don’t we raise money to help other kids and their families, so they don’t have to go through what we’re going through right now?’ For the next two years, Bonnie led her life with so much courage and enthusiasm. We know we can’t bring Bonnie back, but every child that is helped — we call them our Stop Children’s Cancer angels — makes us feel good about what we’re doing.”
In 2017, Stop Children’s Cancer donated $1 million to the UF College of Medicine. The gift ensures the longevity of the Bonnie R. Freeman Clinical Trials Fund, established in 2011 by a gift of $1.05 million. Over the last four decades, the Freemans’ organization has helped provide more than $7 million in funding for pediatric cancer research at the UF College of Medicine. The most recent gift will continue to fund the assistant directorship of clinical research at the UF Pediatric Oncology Clinical Trials Office, held by Giselle Moore-Higgs, PhD, as well as support the UF Pediatric Sarcoma Center and the center’s development of clinical trials to treat bone cancers like osteosarcoma and Ewing sarcoma.
William Slayton, MD ’92, division chief for pediatric hematology and oncology at UF Health Shands Children’s Hospital, says funding from Stop Children’s Cancer creates ripple effects, ultimately leading to improvements in cure rates for several pediatric cancers.
“Stop Children’s Cancer has allowed us to attract leaders from across the nation to join our pediatric clinical trials program. We’ve doubled the number of physicians in the office from five to 10. That support catalyzed the improvement in our division,” he says. “These trials have had a major impact on the cure rate for children with acute lymphocytic leukemia, or ALL, neuroblastoma and Wilm’s tumors. The survival rate for ALL, which Bonnie had, was 67 percent in 1980. Now it’s close to 90 percent.”
Scott Rivkees, MD, chair of the UF College of Medicine department of pediatrics, says clinical trials — research studies and experiments that test a treatment’s safety and effectiveness — lead to important translatable findings.
“Research means hope, and research is incredibly expensive,” Rivkees says. “The amount of funding we receive through the National Institutes of Health is not enough for us to tackle serious illnesses like pediatric cancer. If not for the support of groups like Stop Children’s Cancer, we wouldn’t have the resources to dream up and test new ideas.”
Slayton calls the Freeman family’s work with Stop Children’s Cancer an inspiring community effort.
“Their work is so vibrant and energetic,” he says. “It shows what an incredible legacy Bonnie’s idea and her family’s work has provided to her community.”
This story originally ran in the Summer 2018 issue of the Doctor Gator newsletter.
