What is The Julie Fund?
While the Julie Fund was established after her death in 2004, the idea for the fund was Julie’s. When she became ill in November and experienced the nightmare cancer patients face, she declared, “We must do something to help other people faced with this terrible situation.” The Julie Fund was established by Julie’s family and friends in partnership with the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Partners Healthcare, a system of Massachusetts’ leading academic medical centers and community hospitals. The Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center treats 7,000 new cancer patients each year. By working with the Mass General and the Partners Healthcare Network, The Julie Fund expects to impact three key areas relating to women’s cancers:
| Research Funding of cancer research, including subsidizing the hiring of the most talented cancer research fellows and other major research-related expenses. |
Patient/Family Support Funding the additional non-medical expenses incurred by families of cancer patients. These include transportation, food, day care, temporary housing, and other exceptional expenses that are a result of cancer treatments. |
Education Funding educational programs for health care professionals and the general public in order to raise awareness of the symptoms of and treatments for women’s cancers. |
What Research is The Julie Fund supporting?
1.) The fund supports a major project in identifying blood markers, which can detect ovarian cancer at its earliest stage. Using a technology that can find proteins in the blood at very low levels, this project has compared blood from women with ovarian cancer to normal women. Multiple new markers with better detection for ovarian cancer than CA125 have been found. These are being evaluated for their effectiveness in detecting curable ovarian cancer.
2.) The fund is supporting a project that is determining a gene test which can determine which women with early stage will recur after initial treatment. This test will spare thousands of women the toxicity of combination chemotherapy while providing more effective treatment for those who will benefit. This is similar to the test used for women with early stage breast cancer (oncotype Dx)
3.) The fund continues to support a project to determine the molecular basis for platinum resistant ovarian caner. This is the most deadly form of ovarian cancer and new approaches are desperately needed. This project uses the most modern technology available to determine the precise therapy the tumor will respond to.
With your help through a donation to The Julie Fund her wish will come true.