Research Center

• The University of Massachusetts Memorial Cancer Center serves to integrate significant treatment and research activities available in the medical world today. Another major function is to encourage the innovative collaborations and to enthusiastically promote the activities for treatment available today. It also promotes the projects that have the potential to bring the work from the bench to the bedside.
  
  

Beginnings

• The Walk to Cure Cancer was started in 1999 on Labor Day by a team of charitable working women and men of Massachusetts. The team was supported by local, state and regional government, various colleges and businesses as well as other community advocates. The idea was initially introduced by the UMass Memorial Cancer Center, and due to the substantial backing it received, the idea became a reality.
  
  

Today

• The event is a 5-mile-long walk-a-thon. The walk has raised more than $6 million over the course of its existence. It has successfully enabled cutting-edge research on cancer and brought treatment techniques a step closer to discovering a cure. These walks are not only instrumental in helping the cancer care societies, they also help take the research to a higher level.
  
  

Effects

• After the start of the Walk to Cure Cancer, the University of Massachusetts Medical School's landscape underwent changes. Now the campus sports a 10-story research facility, which was completed in 2001. The focus in the first several years was to establish a concrete, visible realization of the planned research facility on the campus. As a result, for the past few years, the things happening inside the facility are motivating the people walking for a cure for cancer. The building is enabling the progress of cutting-edge research on cancer, and the possibility of a cure is not ignored by the walkers. These are the major factors that keep the people walking for a cure for cancer motivated.
  
  

Results

• The Cancer Walks in Massachusetts have been on track for the past 11 years, and thanks to the philanthropy of thousands of walkers, the UMass Memorial Cancer Center has made exceptional advancements in the field of cancer research. The center has also achieved many milestones in understanding and giving treatments for leukemia, non-Hodgkins lymphoma, and colon, prostate, breast, stomach and pancreatic cancers.
  
  

Get Involved

• If you would like to contribute to this cause, you can form a group of walkers and designate a leader of the group. The foundation is always looking for new teams to help them reach their fundraising goal each time around.