Hope on Wheels

Hyundai Grant Benefits Childhood Cancer Research

Hyundai representatives present a check to Raymond Watts (6th from left).

Hyundai Hope on Wheels visited the UAB Division of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology at Children’s of Alabama Hospital last fall to present a $100,000 Hope Grant. The award will provide funding for the expansion of three childhood cancer programs: the UAB Pediatric Developmental Therapeutics Program, the UAB Childhood Cancer Survivorship Program, and the Hope and Cope Psychosocial Support Program.

The goal of the Hyundai Hope on Wheels program is to increase awareness of childhood cancer and to improve the lives of children with cancer through national television commercials, materials in its dealerships, and donations of $6.8-million worth of Hope Grants to hospitals and nonprofit organizations across the country. At the end of 2010, Hope on Wheels had donated more than $23 million to fight childhood cancer, which remains the leading cause of death by disease among U.S. children one to 14 years of age.

“The Hyundai Hope on Wheels grant program offers us the opportunity to address important unmet care and research needs,” says Raymond G. Watts, M.D., director of the Division of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology. “It will allow us to focus our attention on expansion of two care and research initiatives as well as the creation of a new pilot program. The last 50 years has seen remarkable success in the care of children and young adults with cancer, with cure rates increasing from less than 10 percent to almost 80 percent, underscoring the impact of governmental and philanthropic funding for childhood cancer research.”

Maintaining the Momentum / Summer 2011