Floral designs typically top tables at local luncheons, but at a Paceline event Friday, pom poms and noise makers adorned the tables instead as attendees used them to celebrate the distribution of more than $250,000 in cancer research grants.
Hurricane Helene led to the cancellation of the fall bike ride to raise money for cancer, but that didn’t stop the donations from coming in.
“What we’re doing in this building day in and day out through the research that’s provided in part because of Paceline is that we’re trying to prolong and save the lives of families and of friends and our great-great-great-great-grandchildren who we will never meet but one day they won’t be battling this disease…That’s what we’re about,” said Russell Keen, Augusta University president at the luncheon at the M. Bert Storey Research Building on the university’s medical campus
Since 2019, the event has brought in about $2 million which has been leveraged to obtain about $9 million in additional funding for 26 projects, according to Dr. Jorge Cortes, Georgia Cancer Center director.
“Every dollar that comes to Paceline comes directly to the cancer center to fund research projects,” he said.
This year, Paceline funded seven grants; many highly targeted in scope such as the one proposed by Dr. Gang Zhou, who plans to study salmonella for the treatment of cancer.
Keen said Paceline grants tend to fund projects that might not receive funding from traditional sources.
The event also highlighted some previous grant recipients such as Yan Cui, a Georgia Cancer Center professor, who received the Art of Cancer award at the second annual Georgia Cancer Center retreat for a Paceline-funded study on stromal cells. She received more than $3 million in additional grant funding to further her research.
This year’s event will be Oct. 5 with a walk/run component added to the bike ride.
“For those of you who like to walk or run, you can thank me for that. I did the ride in 2023, and I didn’t walk the same for about a month and a half,” said Keen, whose comment drew the laughs of those attending.
Adding the walk/run should bring in more participants.
Cortes said that in addition to raising funds for cancer research, the Paceline event promotes a healthy lifestyle and cited a recent study that showed cancer survivors who participated in regular physical activity survived longer than those who do not.
Exercise has also been proven beneficial in preventing certain types of cancer.
The Paceline event provides a sense of community with people coming together for a common goal, and it’s not just cancer survivors or the general public who take part. Doctors and cancer researchers also ride bikes and raise money.
“It shows how we are part of the community,” said Cortes.
Ian Mercier, president of the MCG Foundation which supports Paceline, said that sense of community came into play this year in light of the hurricane.
“The fact that we raised about a quarter of a million dollars despite there not being an event is indicative of the kind of support that comes from people supporting each other,” he said.
Charmain Z. Brackett, the publisher of Augusta Good News and Inspiring: Women of Augusta, has covered Augusta’s news for more than 35 years. She’s a Georgia Press Association winner and the recipient of the 2018 Greater Augusta Arts Council’s media award. Reach her at charmain@augustagoodnews.com. Sign up for the newsletter here.
