Ten-year-old Eva has good days at her clinic in Mobile: laughter, fidget-toy trades, dancing, playing like any other kid. Her mother says Hyundai has a hand in that.
USA Health reports that on Aug. 13, leaders at USA Health Children’s & Women’s Hospital accepted a $100,000 Impact Grant from Hyundai Hope on Wheels.
The money supports pediatric cancer research and the hospital’s pediatric oncology department. Former patients and children still in treatment gathered for the presentation, a Hope on Wheels Handprint Ceremony, where young patients dip their hands in paint and press them onto a Hyundai vehicle.
The grant brings Hope on Wheels’ total support for the hospital, part of the University of South Alabama’s academic health system, to $325,000.
Eva is being treated for B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia. At the ceremony, her mother, Emily Poet, talked about the staff, the other kids in treatment with Eva, and what outside support means to them.
“Grants like the one Hyundai is presenting make these things possible,” she said.
Hyundai Hope on Wheels has been fighting childhood cancer since 1998. Its primary funding comes from Hyundai Motor America and more than 855 U.S. Hyundai dealers. This year the program reaches $303 million in lifetime giving, supporting more than 1,600 research grants at over 175 hospitals and research institutions.
September is National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month.
On Sept. 9, Hyundai launched The Mark of a Warrior, a national campaign built around the Hope on Wheels handprint. It includes about 42 Handprint Ceremonies, check presentations and Warrior Gown deliveries, plus more than 100 community blood drives.
Mobile isn’t the program’s only Alabama stop. Last August, Children’s of Alabama in Birmingham received a $100,000 Hope on Wheels grant for research into pediatric brain tumors.
About 15,000 children in the United States are diagnosed with cancer each year. Hope on Wheels is working to give them good days, one handprint at a time.