Gavers Community Cancer Foundation join forces with Centegra to create a new breast center in Crystal Lake.

Centegra Health System is proud to announce McHenry County's only patient-centered program that will provide a coordinated, interdisciplinary, high-quality continuum of care for women's breast care needs, thanks to a $500,000 donation from the Gavers Community Cancer Foundation.

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Gavers Community Cancer Foundation presents check for $12,000 to The Wellness Place in Palatine, IL.

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Rush Annouces New State of the Art Cancer Center
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Family Health Partnership Walk Run

Gavers Community Cancer Foundation presented a check for $40,000 to Family Health Partnership Clinic at the annual Care 4 Breast Cancer 5K run/walk

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GAVERS CANCER FOUNDATION AWARDS $360,000 - from the Woodstock Independent
Representatives of the Gavers Community Cancer Foundation present a check for $40,000 to Family Health Partnership Clinic, Woodstock. Pictured, from left, are: Andy Hartlieb, Gavers Foundation; Cathy Patenaude, FHPC; Ralph Webster, Gavers Foundation; Suzanne Hoban, FHPC executive director; Rhienna Kujawa, FHPC; Steve Gavers; and Kathy Rauch, FHPC. Angela McAuley, senior vice president, Centegra Women’s Services, accepts a grant of $140,000 from Gavers Community Cancer Foundation President Steve Gavers. Pictured, from left, with McAuley and Gavers, are foundation board members Andy Hartlieb and Ralph Webster.
Gavers Community Cancer Foundation, Woodstock, awarded $355,000 to five organizations that are leading the fight against cancer. Centegra Health System in McHenry County received $140,000 for the breast cancer center in its proposed Centegra Sage Women’s Pavilion. Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, received $140,000 to be used for cancer research.

This is the ninth year Gavers has granted funds to Rush and Centegra. The Rush University Medical Center grant was made in partnership with the Brian Piccolo Cancer Research Fund for three innovative breast cancer research initiatives: to find an alternative to often debilitating radiation treatments, to study breast cancer treatment disparities and to analyze recurrent breast cancer at the cellular level.

Family Health Partnership Clinic, Woodstock, a seven-time repeat recipient, was awarded $40,000 to provide mammograms to uninsured and underinsured women in McHenry County. The foundation donated $25,000 to St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital to support its programs and $10,000 for Wellness Place, Palatine, a cancer education and support center that provides programs at no cost to cancer patients and their caregivers.

Gavers Community Cancer Foundation was established in 1999 by Steve Gavers, a cancer survivor. He and the foundation board are dedicated to educating the public about the importance of being checked and to furthering cancer research. Since 2000, the foundation has awarded more than $2.3 million. Funds are raised annually at events planned and coordinated entirely by volunteers — 100 percent of the net proceeds goes to cancer programs.

The foundation’s premier event is the annual Barndance. The foundation also sponsors a 5K Walk/Run; a Kid’s Dash; and a motorcycle ride, Get Ridin,’ Get Checked. Barndance 2011 will be held Saturday, July 16, at Emricson Park, Woodstock.

For information, call Denise Graff Ponstein
at 815-338-8844.

Please check out the good work done by the recipients of the Gavers Community Cancer Foundation by clicking the links below:


BREAST CANCER
RESEARCH CONTINUES
Rush University Medical Center receives a total of $270,000

The doctors and researchers at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago are making exciting advances that are revolutionizing the understanding and treatment of breast cancer. GCCF is extremely proud to provide funding for these important initiatives through the Brian Piccolo Cancer Research Fund at Rush. GCCF contributed $105,000 to the Piccolo Fund in 2005 and added $165,000 in 2006 to support the team of cancer experts at Rush.

Rush researchers have been instrumental in clinical trials of two important drugs designed to combat breast cancer — Herceptin (Trastusamab) and Bevacizumab. Herceptin fundamentally is an antibody that fights the product of an oncogene causing tumor cells to grow. Bevacizumab sabotages new blood vessel formation to starve the tumor cells of oxygen. Trials have shown the drug can double the patient’s response to chemotherapy. Another exciting tool is ONCOTPE DX, a test on the tumor that makes it possible to determine women who will not benefit from chemotherapy. In the past, doctors recommended chemotherapy to all breast cancer patients who had estrogen-fed tumors larger than one centimeter and where the cancer had spread to the lymph nodes. Only about four percent of these women benefited from chemotherapy.

The ONCOTYPE DX test allows doctors to determine another more appropriate and successful treatment earlier than ever before. This can save hundreds of women from undergoing unnecessary and often unsuccessful chemotherapy.

All GCCF supporters should be proud theyare providing funding to advance new treatments for women and men who have or who are at risk for breast cancer.

STATE OF THE ART CANCER CARE CLOSE TO HOME
Centegra Health System receives total of $270,000 from Barndance 2005 & 2006

$100,000 TO GET CHECKED! PROGRAM
In 2002, Centegra Health System embraced the mission of the Gavers Community Cancer Foundation and used GCCF donated funds to create the Centegra Get Checked! program. The Get Checked! program is dedicated to increasing public awareness of and access to age-appropriate cancer screenings by providing free information, hosting free screenings and developing community outreach activities for individuals and businesses throughout McHenry County.


GCCF has continued the support of the Get Checked! program with donations of $50,000 in each of the last two years. One dramatic example of the impact of the Get Checked! program is the increase in skin cancer screenings.

  • In 2002, just 36 skin cancer screenings were performed in the entire year — 3 individuals were referred for follow up.

  • In just the third quarter of 2006, 240 screenings were performed — 64 individuals were sent for follow up.


Some additional significant Get Checked! results include:

  • Countless free screenings to help area residents Get Checked!

  • 66 Get Checked! workshops and 22 physician workshops

  • 40 health fair displays

  • 3 Centegra Community Cancer Symposiums, with the fourth planned for Nov. 3.

  • Centegra Sage Cancer Center hosted the 20th anniversary of National Cancer Survivors’ Day on June 3, 2007.
$170,000 TO HELP FUND PET/CT SCANNER
Centegra Health System Foundation also received $55,000 from GCCF in 2005 and $115,000 in 2006 to help bring state-of-the-art PET/CT scan services to the Centegra Sage Cancer Center at CNIMC two half days a week. This exciting technology helps physicians determine the stage of a patient’s cancer, and then create more precise treatment plans that minimize radiation to tissues surrounding tumors. Having a PET/CT scanner at the Sage Cancer Center even just two half days a week is an important advancement in cancer treatment for the residents of McHenry County. GCCF supporters have helped to make that happen!
   
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