What we do.

Creating hope for our children.

The Courage of Carly Fund gives children with cancer and blood disorders the fighting chance they deserve. Providing everything from unforgettable moments and family events to financial support and promising scientific research, we offer hope and a little bit of extra happiness to children, teens and their families.
A pediatric patient sits with a woman at Roswell Park
A young pediatric patient who has lost her hair sits on the floor, petting a therapy dog. The dog is calm and puts his nose near the girl's face. The child is smiling at looking at the camera.

Support for the whole famly.

When a child is diagnosed with something as serious as cancer or a blood disorder, the entire family is affected. At Roswell Park, our pediatric psychosocial team works in tandem with our talented clinical team to offer not only excellent medical care, but also the crucial emotional and psychosocial support needed by each member of the family.

The Courage of Carly Fund enables Roswell Park to provide a number of psychosocial support programs, including:

Family counseling

Therapeutic play and art programs

Activities in clinic

Educational advocacy

Beads of Courage and the Aflac Duck

Family comfort packages

End of treatment and milestone celebrations

Teen wellness program

Family counseling

Therapeutic play and art programs

Activities in clinic

Educational advocacy

Beads of Courage and the Aflac Duck

Family comfort packages

End of treatment and milestone celebrations

Teen wellness program

Fun events.

The Fund also diversionary programs to take our patients’ and families’ attention away from the stress, anxiety and challenges of treatment, including:

Trips to the zoo

Game nights at Dave and Buster’s

Teen prom

Holiday parties

Tickets to special events

A group of teenagers in formal dress toss colorful balloons in the air at the Courage of Carly Fund Teen Prom.

Funding critical research.

Only 4% of federal funding for cancer research is designated for childhood cancers. That means donor support and community fundraising are crucial to bring this research to life.

The world-renowned physicians and researchers at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center often have ideas that could change the course of treatment for children and lead to cures. But without funding, their ideas would never get off the ground. That’s where you come in.

Donations to the Courage of Carly Fund help close the gap in federal funding to allow researchers to take their ideas and turn them into reality so more lives can be saved. Donations to the Courage of Carly Fund provides seed funding to launch new research projects and provides for the exploration of new therapeutic options that could lead to new standards of care.

Collaborative, comprehensive care.

In a collaborative effort to provide the very best care for our pediatric patients, the Roswell Park Oishei Children’s Cancer and Blood Disorders Program treats children using complete, state-of-the-art technology while staying focused on a family-centered approach. The program offers our pediatric patients the expertise of a joint program based at Roswell Park — the only National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center in New York State outside of New York City — and John R. Oishei Children’s Hospital, where the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Hematology/Oncology Patient Suite on the 12th floor has been dedicated to meet the needs of young cancer and blood disorders patients, including an 11-bed inpatient unit. Pediatric outpatients are treated at Roswell Park in the Katherine, Anne and Donna Gioia Pediatric Hematology Oncology Center.

Thanks to this partnership, we can offer new capabilities and specialized services, such as:

An expanded bone marrow transplant program for children of all ages. This gives our youngest patients access to transplants at Roswell Park for the first time.

An expanded blood disorder program to treat nonmalignant disorders such as sickle cell disease, anemias, bleeding conditions and thrombosis (blood clots).

The Pediatric Experimental Therapeutics Program, which offers new, advanced, experimental treatments, therapies and medicines to children with all types of cancer.