Bridge To A Cure Foundation
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Mission
Why was Bridge to a Cure Foundation created?
Bridge To A Cure Foundation Founder and President Robert (Bob) Martin understands the flaws in our healthcare system. He knows why cancer research is failing our children — so much so that not one new drug has been developed to address pediatric brain tumors in the last 40 years. His granddaughter, Clara, was stricken with a form of brain cancer at just 4 years old. In seeking a cure for her, he uncovered several serious shortfalls in America’s approach to childhood cancer research and treatment.
Bob collected insights from more than 120 cancer researchers and practitioners to learn what’s behind the absence of breakthroughs to cures: the absence of a national childhood cancer database, a clinical trial process designed for children, and appropriate funding.
Sadly, Clara passed away from the disease in 2017 at age six. Her courage and positive spirit continue to inspire Bob’s unique, multifaceted approach to accelerate the pace and success of cures for hundreds of thousands who suffer from childhood cancer. In 2017, he established Bridge To A Cure Foundation to help families touched by this terrible illness.
What are the goals of the Bridge To A Cure Foundation?
To unite and transform the childhood cancer community’s approach to research with the goal of cutting the rate of deaths due to childhood cancer 50% by 2030.
What is the focus area of Bridge To A Cure Foundation's efforts?
Bridge To A Cure is fixated on the eradication of childhood brain tumors. The best, brilliant minds are working on cures for brain tumors: not one drug has been developed.
WHY? It’s because these great minds don’t have access to the critical data essential to discovery. We are working to remove the barriers that block access to this data across the entire data ecosystem: data collection, data storage, and data access.
Why do you support CBTN?
CBTN is a model for open science. Because there aren’t enough samples or information at any one hospital for researchers to make meaningful impact on their own, CBTN pulls together this data globally and makes it available to any researcher who requests it. Also, it is making headway toward our goal of building a robust database to include everything we know about childhood cancer that can be searched and researched using AI. Bridge To A Cure Foundation sits on the CBTN Executive Council to ensure that the important work of this leading database consortia continues unabated.