Local Work, Global Impact

Today, the UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center received an extremely generous donation from one of its most loyal and longstanding community partners, the Breast Cancer Research Foundation of Alabama. The BCRFA hosts events and other fundraising opportunities throughout the year, and in turn donates all of its proceeds to the Cancer Center for breast cancer research. I was extremely grateful and proud to accept their donation today of $400,000 - their largest contribution yet.

What's most amazing about the BCRFA is that it's a "homegrown" foundation. It started here in Birmingham in 1996 with two friends, Dolly O'Neal and Bruce Sokol, who met over lunch and decided to do something to raise money for breast cancer research. Thirteen weeks later, they hosted their first golf tournament, and they haven't looked back since. To date, the foundation has raised nearly $3 million for research.

To me, the BCRFA is a perfect example of a local group coming together and making a huge impact. Because the foundation's support has allowed the Cancer Center to do just that. The money they have donated has been critical in turning our breast cancer program into one of the premier research and clinical enterprises in the country. With their money, we were able to plant those seeds and grow our program into what it is today.

The support of the Breast Cancer Research Foundation of Alabama is critical to our success here at the Cancer Center, and I am proud to have them as a community partner. With them at our side, we'll make a tremendous difference in the fight against breast cancer.

-Ed Partridge, M.D.