The Caring For A Cure team at the 2016 Boston Marathon

Caring For A Cure

Caring For A Cure was founded by the nurses of the Mass General Adult Hematology/Oncology and Bone Marrow Transplant program with a goal to improve the journey of patients and families with cancer through research, resources, and awareness.

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Everyday Amazing

Overview

For Patients. For Families. For Research. For a Cure.

Caring For A Cure was founded in 2011 by the nurses of the Adult Hematology/Oncology and Bone Marrow Transplant program at Mass General with a goal to improve the journey of patients and families with cancer through research, resources, and awareness. Since its inception, we have raised over $500,000!

The funds raised have been directed to things both big and small – from flying in a bone marrow donor from halfway around the world, to making sure patients with a new diagnosis of leukemia have real tissues, to ensuring caregivers are cared for.

Our Mission

Our goal to ease the journey and uplift the spirits of our patients and their families through support, connections and research.

  • For Patients - At the core of our mission is our patients. We continuously seek opportunities both small and large to make their journey easier and uplift spirits.
  • For Families - Families support our patients and are incredibly important to us. Recognizing that this is a journey for patients and those who walk beside them, we aim to support and recognize their integral role.
  • For Research - Research leads to innovations that help our patients recover faster and moves us toward a cure. We are incredibly lucky to be based at Mass General, surrounded by an incredible research team both here and across the river.
  • For a Cure - We'd love it if we could play even a small part in curing this disease. We'd happily move on to something else and fundraise for another worthy cause.

 

Meet the Team

Caring For A Cure Leadership

    • Molly Higgins, RN

      Oncology Nurse, Mass General Cancer Center
      Co-Founder and Director, Caring For A Cure

      A New Hampshire native, Molly graduated with a BSN from UNH. She explored the West Coast as a travel nurse before finally landing back in New England. Her career at MGH started as a travel nurse on Ellison 14 in 2007 and we never let her leave. She's now works nights when she isn't home with her two children, Dawson and Flynn. Molly thinks big. Big gives, big events and big ideas. Her talent is helping us grow and expand our reach – through bigger fundraisers, outreach and most importantly, bigger things for our patients and families.

      With the help of Jess Kensky, Molly coordinated the first Caring For A Cure Marathon Team and completed the course with the "Boston Babes" in honor of Jess and our patients. The team's success was highlighted throughout the MGH community and proven to be our largest fundraiser to date. She is lovingly referred to as "Oprah" for her giving nature!


  • Sara Stevens, NP

    Oncology Nurse, Mass General Cancer Center
    Director, Caring For A Cure

    Raised in Pennsylvania, Sara started as a staff nurse on Ellison 14 in 2010 after graduating from Boston College. She worked as an inpatient oncology nurse practitioner on Lunder 9 and 10 and now is with the Thoracic Oncology group. Mom to three, Jack, Kate and Will, Sara works to keep us connected and updated through social media. She is behind our recent push to share all the incredible things we’ve had the opportunity to do. We're incredibly proud of the fact that The Boston Globe listed her as one of their runners to watch at the 2016 Marathon. Sara’s known as our IT guru - she’s got the skill and patience to make sure we keep our social media updated!


  • Christine Weiand, RN

    Oncology Nurse, Mass General Cancer Center
    Co-Founder and Director, Caring For A Cure

    Originally from Marshfield, Massachusetts, Christine studied Nursing at Saint Anselm College before beginning her career on the inpatient BMT/Leukemia floor in 2006. Her love for oncology patients has kept her there ten years later. When not at work, she’s taking care of her dog Gidget, shopping or watching sports.

    Whether it’s wrangling high school students, an array of runners/walkers or 500 bananas and water bottles, Christine is the brains behind our inaugural annual event, the Marshfield 5k. She manages it all. Now held in the fall, this event brings together over 200 of our nearest and dearest. Christine is our rational thinker - known by us as our voice of reason!


  • Laura White, RN

    Oncology Nurse, Mass General Cancer Center
    Co-Founder and Director, Caring For A Cure

    Hailing from North of the Border (Canada that is) where she attended Queen's University, Laura’s MGH career started on Ellison 14 in 2007. She worked as an outpatient BMT/Leukemia staff nurse on Cox 1 before becoming the Nurse Director. Currently she works as a Nursing Practice Specialist on Yawkey 8E.

    Need a wedding during Snowmageddon 2015? 575 fleeces sold and delivered in two months? 4,000 pairs of Blings? Or flowers for 350 guests? She’s on it with ribbon and a monogram. This is why we call her Martha.

Our Work

What We Support:

Gives

These are the opportunities that we seek to make the journey easier for our patients and their families. Examples include: necessities like parking, gas, money, help with groceries, fun/respite things like sending a family out to dinner and the movies, spa days, birthday or anniversary celebrations, or a night out in a hotel. View some of our Gives below:

  • Although she couldn’t leave the hospital, a beautiful wedding was arranged by the nurses for this patient and her fiancé. The ceremony was officiated by Katrina Scott of MGH Chaplaincy in the Lunder 10 lounge.

  • Making a wedding that takes place in a hospital feel special is made much easier with the help of Danielle Keefe (thanks also goes to Kelly O’Keefe!), who provided hair and makeup to make this special day feel a little more special.

  • Picking out a pair of our signature "blings." Since 2011, we have partnered with Jojo Loves You and sold close to 4,000 pairs (that’s $40,000 raised!!) to our friends and co-workers. We give out blings when patients lose their hair or are having a bad day, and each pair sold through Caring For A Cure donates $10 back into the fund.

  • Real tissues do matter. Since 2012 patients newly diagnosed with leukemia have been greeted with a basket full of essentials for their extended stay, including blankets, tissues and Chapstick.

  • A little extra love for the new baby of a patient who was hospitalized for leukemia treatment during his birth.

  • When his nurses realized that a college senior would spend his big day in the hospital, they pulled together a special graduation celebration for him in the lounge.

  • A small and sweet celebration for the final day of chemo.

  • Thanks to the kindness of James Taylor himself and our #1 Babe, Jessica Kensky, patients and their nurses spent a very special night at Fenway Park.

  • What started with a tweet from her nurse ended up as a dream come true for an incredible patient.

Research

Caring for the Cure is supporting the Mass General Cancer Center Blood and Marrow Transplant (BMT) Survivorship program by providing funding to ensure adequate social work resources for the program. Social workers play a critical role in the Mass General Cancer Center BMT Survivorship program including:

  • Conducting a comprehensive psychosocial assessment on transplant survivors
  • Providing supportive counseling for transplant survivors with significant psychological distress
  • Participating in studies of interventions to promote the physical and psychological well-being of caregivers (i.e. family and friends) of transplant survivors
  • Leading educational workshops for patients with chronic graft-versus-host disease

Learn more about Caring For A Cure's work in these videos.

Caring For A Cure is done on the nurses’ own time, but has impact far beyond what the group had dreamed.

 

10 Mass General nurses ran the 2016 Boston Marathon as members of the Caring For A Cure Team.

 

In 2014 Caring For A Cure was honored as part of the 100 for helping change the fight against cancer. Watch this video to learn more about their work.

Events & News

WBZ | CBS Boston's Anaridis Rodriguez sat down with Molly Higgins, RN and Christine Weiand, RN, Mass General Cancer Center nurses and founders of Caring For A Cure, to learn about the work that Caring For A Cure is doing to help ease the journey and uplift the spirits of their patients and their patients' families.

Contact & How to Help

Contact Us

If you have any questions or would like to get involved, please email us at caringforacure@gmail.com.

Like our page on Facebook and follow us on Instagram to stay up-to-date with all of our latest news and events!

Donate

Your donation to the Caring For A Cure fund supports our mission to ease the journey and uplift the spirits of our patients and their families through support, connections and research. Our hope is that every dollar we raise can make the journey down this long road just a bit brighter for our patients and their families. Thank you for your support!

Make a Gift Now

If you prefer to write a check, please make it out to CARING FOR A CURE and mail to: Mass General Hospital Development Office, Attn: Caring For A Cure, 125 Nashua Street, Boston MA 02114

Fleeces

After selling 569 fleece jackets (we can't believe the number either!), we're now online! Our fleeces have made it as far north as the great nation of Canada, and as far south as Washington, DC.

Purchase Fleeces

 

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