The Chris Elliott Fund has officially re-launched in 2015 as the EndBrainCancer Initiative. Historically, our 501 (c)3 non-profit corporation has been associated with Christopher Stewart Elliott, co-founder, who himself bravely fought brain cancer and started the Fund with his wife, Dellann, before passing in 2002. The goal of the organization is and has always been about providing IMMEDIATE ACCESS to advanced treatments, studies and clinical trials at the time of diagnosis vs. waiting to have this conversation after all Standard of Care treatments have failed. It has been about being Proactive rather than Reactive to brain cancer.
The primary reason behind our name change and new initiative is because industry, pharmaceutical companies, major donors and other partners have not fully understood that our direct one-on-one version of “Patient Support” has always been about fueling research through a Patient Focus and about getting these patients into advanced treatments quickly in order to create a greater quality of life, longer survivorship and perhaps, survivorship. As an organization, we had never properly defined our version of “Patient Support” and how our work leads to translational medicine and additional treatments quicker than the traditional method of filling clinical trials, therefore, our messaging and IMPACT had never properly been communicated. The EndBrainCancer Initiative is a bold attempt to create research partners and collaborative efforts in order to change our current Standard of Care to include discussions related to Consent Forms, education and enrollment into clinical trials at the point of diagnosis. Leadership and our Board of Directors adopted this change so that our primary emphasis and vision were clearer to the research and GBM community. As part of this process, we have developed:
- a new branded logo (seen here)
- a new web site (you are on it!)
- strategic collaborative initiatives to advance our mission into the future (visit EBC Initiative overview)
Quite simply, our work and vision is to increase survivorship and to find a cure in our lifetime through fueling research via our version of “Patient Support”.
Explore this site to discover related efforts included an expanded online Patient Support Resource area, the Connecting for Cure networking focus, and additional grassroots involvement options in our TAKE ACTION section.
We are excited for this change. With it we will advance our key priorities in 2015 and beyond.