Reid R. Sacco Memorial Foundation

The Liddy Shriver Sarcoma Initiative is pleased to partner with the Reid R. Sacco Memorial Foundation to fund research on the cancers that affect adolescents and young adults.

Reid lost his life to cancer in 2005 at age 20, after a courageous two-year battle against a rare form of sarcoma. It was during this fight that Reid's parents, Gene and Lorraine, learned the sad facts about how poorly served adolescents & young adults (AYA) with cancer were in terms of treatment options, access to clinical trials, and survival-rate improvement seen in other age groups. It was Reid himself who, near the end of his life, still held out some hope that he’d live long enough to ride in a cycling event to raise awareness and money to change things for other AYAs diagnosed with cancer. When he couldn’t achieve that goal himself, Gene and Lorraine had no choice but to do for him. Within three months of Reid's passing, the Saccos had launched the first annual Reid’s Ride. Eight years later, their foundation continues to grow and to selectively fund promising programs aimed at fighting the cancers striking AYAs. They continue their mission because, although there have been important improvements and advances in the last eight years, they want to see the day day when all AYAs diagnosed with cancer can expect to live long, healthy lives.

Partnering with the Initiative

By Gene and Lorraine Sacco

The mission of the Reid R. Sacco Memorial Foundation stands on three drivers: Awareness, Improvement in Clinical Care and Clinical Trial Access, and Basic & Applied Research. In the area of research, we are convinced that understanding cancers in adolescents and young adults will require well-funded, directed, innovatively collaborative and rigorously multi-disciplinary programs. Only then do we have a chance to manage, cure or prevent these cancers. What has drawn us to partner with the Initiative is the Shrivers' amazing capacity to assemble balanced teams of remarkable research talent within a robust grant framework founded on a commanding scientific understanding and on disciplined financial accountability.

We owe it to the supporters and donors of Reid’s Ride to take the money they’ve raised and to allocate it wisely. The peer review process provides another layer of assurance that we are doing so, because it improves the odds that we’ve selected a program that can inch us forward toward a better understanding of how we might manage this disease.

The publication of research plans and study reports in ESUN is key. We love that ESUN is a highly regarded and respected source of information about sarcoma research and developments. As valuable as it is to researchers and clinicians, it’s a resource that patients and families can easily access and understand. Most importantly, however, it serves the vital task of communication, reaching out within the electronic and social media to provide rapid and interpretive information on the work and ideas in the fight against sarcomas. We rely on social media and websites to promote awareness about AYA cancers, and embedding the ESUN link on our sites gives our readers immediate access to this rich resource on sarcomas.