I’m going to the Everest Base Camp and I need your help!

I’m joining the Fred Hutch’s Climb to Fight Cancer initiative -- a trek to the Mt. Everest Base Camp with 18 biotech devotees*. The climb is both a physical challenge** as well as a fundraising opportunity to benefit the great work of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

I am writing in hopes that you will stand with me in the commitment to fight cancer by making a donation. The climb begins with each of us on the team raising $50,000 for the Hutchinson Cancer Center by March 23rd of this year. The ultimate goal is for a team of 18 climbers to raise over $1,000,000 for this worthy cause and wonderful organization. One hundred percent of donations will go to the Hutchinson Cancer Center.

Sadly, this trek is a very personal one for me. I have lost people very close to me, and currently I have two close friends diagnosed with cancer and fighting every day to beat it with a great attitude that says F*CK CANCER!

I’d love your support that is a meaningful donation to you and your family. Every additional donor helps us grow the movement and gets us closer to our impact goal.

As importantly – we are looking for corporate donors (at $10K, $20K and $40K levels) to sponsor this research and make a major impact. If your company / firm could make a donation or you have connections at a company / firm that can – please let me know ASAP. There are multiple opportunities to showcase this contribution.

It’s been extremely humbling to see how powerful cancer research can be despite the incredible odds stacked against the researchers – evidenced by Fred Hutch’s contributions***. They literally pioneered therapies that saved 100,000s of lives.

This leading-edge research depends on private contributions that fuel novel studies, which have the power to make a profound difference. This Everest Base Camp trip, in fact, includes a young postdoctoral researcher (Aleena Arakaki) who received funding to launch her career at Fred Hutch based on additional cash raised by the alumni of 2019.

This team, and this trip, is all about making an impact that goes way beyond the $1 million raised including meeting cancer researchers in Kathmandu, raising awareness of cancer needs around the world.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

** We will be hiking on dirt trails up to 17,500 feet of elevation where oxygen density in the air is about half of what it is at sea level.
***Including developing bone marrow transplantation as a cure for leukemia, to pioneering powerful therapies that harness the immune system to fight cancer (CAR-T therapies)