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Levine Children’s has a new way to treat rare cancers. In December, they opened the Isabella Santos Foundation MIBG Therapy Suite at Levine Children’s Hospital – one of only a handful in the United States.
Alexandra (center) is the first patient to receive MIBG treatment in the new The Isabella Santos Foundation MIBG therapy suite at Levine Children’s Hospital. She has neuroblastoma and has relapsed 10 times. Alexandra’s first treatment went well, and she thought it was “so cool” to be the first patient, making history and paving the way for others.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Jan. 22, 2019 – This past year, the Isabella Santos Foundation (ISF) continued to make great strides in the local and national pediatric cancer community.
The most significant development was the creation of a leading-edge rare pediatric cancer treatment room at Atrium Health’s Levine Children’s Hospital. This is one of the leading MIBG Therapy Suites in the nation and is slated to change the landscape of local cancer care. ISF completed its $1 million commitment to build the treatment room which will be used to treat children with neuroblastoma and in advanced clinical trials to test new products on different types of cancers. Construction began mid-2018 and was completed in eight months. The first patient was successfully treated there in December. More information is available at http://bit.ly/MIBGTherapy.
Among the $672,000 that the Isabella Santos Foundation donated to their mission of fighting pediatric cancer, $600,000 was given to Atrium Health’s Levine Children’s Hospital and $30,000 went to The Genomics Department at Nationwide Children’s Hospital to help fund the Neuroblastoma Killer Cell Trial. Additional funds were supplied to local Charlotte organizations that support kids and families fighting pediatric cancer.
Another significant mark ISF made, was partnering with Community Blood Center of the Carolinas to open CBCC’s first blood center in South Charlotte. Named in Isabella’s honor, the Isabella Santos Center is a state-of-the art blood center located in Ballantyne.
In addition, Erin Santos, executive director of and president of ISF, was named the Housing Opportunity Foundation’s “2018 Humanitarian of the Year” and was recognized among The Charlotte Observer’s editorial board among those who “made Charlotte better in 2018.”
This year, ISF is committed to raising $5 million to fund the ISF Rare and Solid Tumor Program at Levine Children’s Hospital. This breakthrough program is designed to research and treat a wide range of deadly pediatric cancers, and will allow the hospital to expand their clinical trials and recruit a national expert in rare and solid tumors.
“We are extremely proud of our results and the impact we made on the pediatric cancer community in 2018,” said Santos. “We are very grateful for our tremendous base of volunteers, supporters, partners and staff for helping us achieve these incredible accomplishments and improve the lives of countless childhood cancer patients.”
About Isabella Santos Foundation
The Isabella Santos Foundation (ISF) is a 501(c)3 childhood cancer foundation dedicated to raising funds for research for rare pediatric cancers, and charities that directly impact the lives of children with cancer. ISF was founded in honor of Isabella Santos from Charlotte, N.C. who lost her battle against neuroblastoma. ISF is committed to improving rare pediatric cancer treatment options in an effort to increase the survival rate of kids with cancer so they can live their dreams. ISF has donated over $3 million to date to expand the scope of pediatric cancer research and treatment, and to fill various needs surrounding childhood cancers.
For more information, visit www.isabellasantosfoundation.org or follow ISF on Facebook (www.facebook.com/IsabellaSantosFoundation), Instagram (www.instagram.com/theisfoundation), Twitter (www.twitter.com/TheISFoundation) and LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/isabella-santos-foundation/)
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CONTACT:
Jenni Walker – Walker PR Group – 980-339-8041-office/704-649-6571-cell
Originally published on Charlotte Business Journal
For more than 20 years, the Charlotte Business Journal has recognized outstanding local businesswomen through the Women in Business Achievement Awards program — and the time has come to reveal our 2019 honorees.
This signature awards program recognizes 25 female business leaders in the Charlotte region who’ve made significant contributions to their companies, industries and communities over the previous year.
A Lifetime Achievement Award honoree will be announced in the days to come. She will be someone who’s made an impact over the course of a distinguished career, joining past recipients such as Susan DeVore of Premier Inc. (NASDAQ: PINC) and Cathy Bessant of Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC).
CBJ will honor the members of the 2019 class at an awards event Feb. 25. As was the case last year, that program will take place in tandem with our Bizwomen Mentoring Monday event, which offers brief, one-on-one coaching sessions and networking opportunities. A cocktail hour, seated dinner and awards presentation will follow.
Each honoree has been asked to share a yearbook photo of herself and to consider this question: “What were you thinking at that moment when the photo was taken, and what advice would you give her today?” Those responses will be part of the program.
The honorees also will be profiled in a CBJ special report Feb. 15, with additional coverage and photos to come after the awards presentation.
Check out last year’s special section here to learn more about the program, and check out the photo gallery below for scenes from the 2018 event.
Congratulations to the 2019 winners:
Originally published by The Charlotte Observer Editorial Board
Erin Santos with her daughter, Isabella. Santos has responded to Isabella’s death by helping others in similar situations. ANGELO MERENDINO
Each year, the Observer editorial board searches for heroes among us who make our city and region better. This year, we’ve found people who’ve made the most of a second chance, helped dads connect with children, helped students explore and forever changed treatment of cancer in Charlotte. (We published our first two honorees yesterday.) To them, and to all who make our community better, we say thank you!
Charlotte’s Isabella Santos was 2 years old when she was diagnosed in 2007 with neuroblastoma, a rare cancer that mostly afflicts very young children.
Her parents couldn’t get the treatment they needed for her in Charlotte. So they took Isabella to Sloan Kettering in New York and to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia to try to save her life.
Even as they cared for their daughter, they quickly created the Isabella Santos Foundation to raise money to fund research at Sloan Kettering for a cure. At first it wasn’t much – they raised $7,000 at their first 5K race in Ballantyne.
But Isabella’s mother, Erin Santos, quit her job at Lending Tree to work on the foundation full time, and she changed the focus. She had had the resources to take Isabella around the country, but she knew other families didn’t, with deadly results. They needed world-class treatment in Charlotte.
So Erin stopped sending money elsewhere and instead worked with Levine Children’s Hospital to treat neuroblastoma here. The foundation raised $1 million last year and $1.4 million this year. It used part of that money to partner with Levine to build an MIBG treatment room, one of fewer than 20 in the country and arguably the best.
Erin Santos and the Isabella Santos Foundation have forever changed treatment of neuroblastoma in Charlotte. But they’re not content to stop there. They have pledged to raise $5 million over five years to have Levine build a rare and solid tumor program that would treat about 15 different rare cancers. It would be the only one of its kind in the country.
Isabella Santos died in 2012 at the age of 7. But her life, through the work of her mother Erin, will benefit others for generations.
