Our first year at ASPHO was one for the books. It was amazing to be around so many other people dedicated to the cause of fighting pediatric cancer. There were representatives from hospitals and foundations from all over the world. Seeing a case study presentation by hospitals in areas from Egypt to the U.K. to right in our backyard in Chicago truly showcases how many families are touched by this terrible disease.
As a future pediatric oncologist, I made it a point to sit in on research discussions and presentations. Something that stuck out as truly universal was a need for more tissue to research on. I can speak to personal experience of having money and facilities to conduct a study, but not being able to due to a lack of tissue to work with. This problem persists for a number of reasons, be it the process of donating is scary and unknown or that research institutions don’t always like sharing what they have. No matter the reason, this needs to change across the board as researchers need tissue to work on to find treatments and the Swifty Foundation is playing a huge role in that initiative.
Our booth had a huge banner that said in big letters “Why Donate Tissue”. We had our video playing with testimony from researchers, our own Patti Gustafson and of course Michael talking about his brilliant master plan that set everything in motion. This caught everyone’s eye. We met with people from hospitals like Baylor in Texas, Stanford’s Lucille Packard out in California and even hospitals overseas. Our message of creating both awareness for tissue donation as well as making it easier for parents and patients going through this journey was not only appreciated but applauded.
The highlight for me of this meeting was hearing a nurse practitioner saying that this video was the thing she was going to use most from this conference to help her patients.
We are incredibly excited to continue to use tools like our video that will further spread awareness and our ability to address the lack of tissue for research. The link provided to whydonatetissue.org contains the link to the video we have made available for unrestricted use by anyone promoting post-mortem tissue donation.
You can also download our literature from the conference below.
Swifty Post-Mortem Tissue Donation Program
