ATLANTA, Sept. 30, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — On Sunday, Sept. 20, nonprofit Purple Pansies received more than $1 million in donations to help end pancreatic cancer in their first-ever virtual gala.
Located north of Atlanta, Purple Pansies was founded in 2009 following the death of Maria Fundora’s mother from pancreatic cancer. Pancreatic cancer has the highest mortality rate of all cancers (74% of patients will not survive one year from time of diagnosis), yet only receive 6% of research funding. Because it is not one of the more common cancers (accounts for 3% of all cancers in the U.S. and 7% of all cancer deaths) it can be difficult to detect and treat. The desire to improve survival rates has been the driving force behind Fundora and organization for more than 11 years.
Purple Pansies is completely volunteer run, and before this year’s event, the nonprofit had raised over $2 million to date to fund research and aid affected families.
This year’s event appropriately named “Seed to Harvest, Nourishing Our Communities, Purple Pansies event sponsored by Kroger” brought together a community committed to making a difference. The theme stems from the idea of planting seeds of love, gratitude, appreciation, empathy and care throughout the community. Purple Pansies is nourishing relationships until they grow into a bountiful harvest that can one day save a life.
“Kroger is proud to be the premier sponsor and advocate for the work of Purple Pansies,” said Tim Brown, Kroger Atlanta division president. “This event and organization have the opportunity to create impactful, life-saving research that will change the lives of many generations to come.”
Much of the evening’s proceeds will help fund TGen (Translational Genomics Research Institute) for research, clinical trials and early detection. TGen is a nonprofit organization dedicated to conducting groundbreaking research with life-changing results and is affiliated with City of Hope.
“Because of Purple Pansies we now have regimes of therapy that shrink patients pancreas cancer between 83-91% of the time, and we never thought that was possible,” said Daniel D. Von Hoff, M.D, F.A.C.P, TGen Physician-in-Chief. “Their funding of clinical trials enables us to get the best laboratory ideas to patients in need.”
It is through the support of the community and partners like Kroger that Maria’s passion project continues to grow – even during a pandemic. This successful evening for the nonprofit means they that can make a difference to help increase the survival rate for pancreatic cancer patients (for all stages combined, the five-year survival rate is only 9%).
“Our mission is to raise awareness of pancreatic cancer, and provide research funding,” said Fundora. “We are also committed to aiding families in our community who have a family member suffering from this disease and can financially use our help.”
For ways on how you can help end pancreatic cancer visit https://www.purplepansies.org
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SOURCE Purple Pansies, Inc.
