Nemours Children’s Health receives $78 million donation for cancer, sickle cell treatment

Nemours Children’s Health announced a $78 million donation from the Lisa Dean Moseley Foundation to fund research and to expand the pediatric hospital system's capacity to provide clinical care for children with cancer, sickle cell disease and other blood disorders.

The announcement was made Thursday, March 2, in a ceremony in an unfinished ward on the fifth floor of Nemours Children’s Hospital. Once construction is completed, the space will go from 24 beds to a 48-bed inpatient unit called the Lisa Dean Moseley Foundation Institute for Cancer and Blood Disorders at Nemours Children’s Health.

The $78 million gift, payable over 10 years, will allow Nemours to offer pediatric patients and their families:

• Isolation areas to protect immunocompromised

• A medication room

• Expanded treatment clinic for infusions and supportive care

High-quality medical care from a dedicated staff committed to caring for children is integral to what Nemours Children's Hospital promises patients, but this donation is transformational, according to Dr. R. Lawrence Moss, president and CEO.

Families coming to the center can expect the latest and best treatments, as well as a beautiful, physical environment that promotes healing in a way "that only Nemours can do," Moss said.

Treating the child, not just the disease

Every year the Nemours Children’s Hospital's Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders sees 300 sickle cell patients and 100 oncology patients.

For the new cancer and blood disorders unit, the hospital envisioned a setting that would encourage holistic healing and recovery, as every child goes through treatment.

Dr. E. Anders Kolb, director of the Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders, said one thing they've learned over the past 15 years, especially in the past five or six years, is that a bed is a horrible place to get care for cancer, sickle cell and blood disorders.

The unit was designed to encourage kids to engage with caregivers and their environment. "Kids really need to be active. They need to be in an environment that invites them to get out of bed, move and interact," Kolb said.

The new unit overlooks Nemours Estate gardens with floor-to-ceiling windows to offer their young patients a grand view of the outdoors. Areas of the center will promote healing through psychology and social work, using activities such as child-centered art therapy, offering kids something other than their disease to focus on.

Funding research for blood cancers and sickle cell

Kolb said the Lisa Dean Mosley Foundation's donation also enables Nemours to endow the funding of their research into the genetics of cancer, stem cell transplant medicine and sickle cell disease.

This endowment will be used to create research programs to attract scientists and researchers worldwide to study blood cancers and disorders in Delaware.

The $78 million donation was the largest gift the center received and biggest commitment the nonprofit Lisa Dean Mosley Foundation has made.

Lisa Dean Moseley, a member of the du Pont family, created the foundation to support medical and scientific research. Of particular importance to the foundation is the research on blood cancers and blood disorders, especially sickle cell, said the organization's president, William Martin.

New support for sickle cell

Sickle cell is not cancer, but a blood disorder that primarily affects African American children. Because of racial attitudes, Moss explained, study of the affliction is not well supported, nor were sickle cell patients and their families, compared with those facing diseases that affect white children.

An estimated 600 to 700 people with sickle cell disease live in Delaware. People with sickle cell visit the hospital's emergency department up to five times a year on average, mostly for pain crisis management, according to a Nemours spokeswoman.

There are effective treatments for sickle cell and its side effects, but the medical profession's past approach has damaged the relationship between patients and the health care profession, Nemours spokespeople said. A goal for the new unit is to repair that relationship, with a focus on building trust with sickle cell patients so they're comfortable engaging in therapies, said Kolb.

"Sickle cell is the most profound and significant example in the United States of racial inequity in health care," Moss said, adding that Nemours is a national leader in addressing some of those inequities, but the donation will allow ample opportunity to achieve far more.

"Let's focus our attention on finding a cure," Martin said.

Reporter Anitra Johnson's work focuses on actions taken to change, improve, and give back to communities in distress. Contact her at ajohnson@delawareonline.com or 302-379-5786 with tips and story ideas. Follow her on Facebook.

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Nemours Children's receives donation for sickle cell, cancer treatment