As a member of MD Anderson’s Advance Team, I visited Houston in late April. My annual trips to Houston always evoke a variety of emotions – we went through some very intense and, at the end, devastating events there. Now in my third year with the Advance Team, I am pleased to be able to give time and effort back to the institution that did so much for Kim.
As I have expressed to many people during my trips there, I wish, so strongly, that things had gone differently, and that Kim was still with us all. But in dealing with this huge loss, I have realized that the level of care and expertise Kim benefited from at MD Anderson has changed my life. It was not until I was asked to join the MD Anderson Advance Team that I realized just how much admiration I have for that noble institution.
After several years of working out the details of the endowment, and following Kim’s wishes, I was pleased to be able to meet this year with the people who are helping Kim’s wishes turn into funding that helps real people.
In 1999, when we founded the Kimberly Patterson Leukemia Research Fund, Kim had two distinct goals: to fund leukemia research to treat and, hopefully one day, cure leukemia, and to ease the financial burden on patients who travel to the best cancer center in the country, whose insurance may pay for their medical expenses but not their practical needs such as food and housing.
Kim’s parents, John and Nora Patterson, and I are pleased to report that, at last, we are realizing Kim’s wishes.
When I met with the head of the Social Services department at MD Anderson, I was presented with a list of the beneficiaries of Kim’s Fund. In the past six months, 18 families from 10 different states have received assistance with housing and food expenses. Since our meeting, we have doubled the endowment’s spending rate from $50,000 to $100,000 and expect to be able to assist many more families during what we know, all too well, is a tremendously difficult time for them.
Later that day, I was honored to meet with Dr. Allen Yang, the Kimberly Patterson Fellow in Leukemia Research. First of all, he was both professional and gracious, and very appreciative of our support. He took me to his lab and gave me a very detailed description of his work. DNA Methylation is not an easy subject to put into layman’s terms, but he did a remarkable job. Basically, he is working with a drug that can potentially shut off a DNA strand’s ability to stray in the wrong direction, one of the foundations of cancer cells’ ability to spread. Because Dr. Yang is at the premiere center for cancer research, he has the access to the best equipment in the world. He showed me a several-hundred-thousand-dollar machine that is helping him read DNA and a make an accurate decision on an individual patient’s course of treatment. Important to Kim’s hopes, Dr. Yang is using his research in several current clinical trials, helping patients now, and not just doing intellectual research for the future.
Our meetings were very gratifying. Over the last few years, I have so badly wanted to tell you, our donors, that your gifts are doing the positive work that Kim envisioned. At last, it is. With your continued help we can make a bigger and bigger impact.
Please continue to support Kim’s Fund.
All my love,
Brian
We are pleased to announce the first recipient of the Kimberly Patterson Leukemia Fellowship in Leukemia Research, Dr. Allen S. Yang.
Following a competitive process, wherin nominations were sought from the M.D. Anderson's medical education faculty, Dr. Yang was selected on the strength of his nominations and his promising career in the research of
leukemia thereapies. We are very excited that Kim's Fund can help support important clinical research that may one day make cancer history.
Dr. Yang's specific research focuses on DNA methylation inhibitors in combination with other chemotherapies for the treatment of patients with advanced CML.
We hope to periodically update this page with information on Dr. Yang's research.
Read Dr. Yang's curriculum vitae
and his nomination letters
We have recently signed an endowment agreement that brings us one step closer to realizing Kim's wish for the Fund to provide support for both leukemia research and patient aid.
Starting now, Kim's Fund will be helping leukemia patients and their families with rent, groceries, medicine, and other basic needs that are not covered by the patient's insurance.
As we experienced in 1999 and 2000, going through a bone marrow transplant requires that the patient and a full-time caregiver live near the hospital for several months at a minimum. While insurance covers the procedure and most prescriptions, there are many expenses left to the patient and his or her family.
We hope this endowment will provide some relief to these warriors and allow them to focus on beating this disease.
UPDATE: Dec. 15, 2003 - The MD Anderson Social Services office reports that four patients and their families have received finacial support from Kim's Fund over the last three months.
A textile designer in New York City, Kim was visiting her parents in Sarasota, Florida when she was diagnosed with Acute Mylogenous Leukemia. She immediately began induction chemotherapy. That was May 13, 1999.
Kim achieved a brief remission before the leukemia returned and the decision was made to go forward with a bone marrow transplant at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas.
Kim's bone marrow transplant took place on October 28, 1999. The donor was her father, John Patterson.
Just before the transplant, three of her good friends in New York planned an event to raise money for Kim and her fiancé to take a vacation following treatment. When Kim learned of their plans, she requested that any money raised be donated to M.D. Anderson for leukemia research.
By the end of that day, word was sent back to New York and the Kimberly Patterson Leukemia Research Fund was born. The few hundred dollars collected for a vacation quickly became a few thousand dollars raised in support of Kim's battle with leukemia.
In the first two months, over ten thousand dollars was raised on Kim's behalf.
In 2000, additional fundraisers brought tens of thousands more.
On November 19, 2000, after battling an infection for two months, Kim lost her eighteen-month fight. The Fund, which was so important to Kim, must continue on and grow, as a tribute to Kim's spirit.
On Kim's request, monies raised will be split evenly between leukemia research and financial assistance for families of bone marrow transplant patients who can not afford the high cost of housing while their loved one is undergoing treatment.
Kim's family thanks you for your generous support and kind thoughts.