Making our funds work to help

People who have recently received a diagnosis of a blood cancer often have questions about the disease, the prognosis and the treatments available. This section of the Web site is arranged to provide information to answer some of these questions and assist patients in finding additional resources.

It is important to learn about the disease, but also to learn about your insurance coverage, healthcare facilities and how to obtain support for yourself and your family. Specific questions may also be answered by information specialists at The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Information Resource Center. The center is open every business day, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. ET, at (800) 955-4572.

The word “diagnosis” means to distinguish or identify a disease. Patients usually arrive at the doctor’s office with a series of complaints or symptoms. Through questioning and examination the physician may also observe abnormal “signs,” such as an enlarged spleen. The results of laboratory tests provide further information. The accumulated evidence leads the physician to a decision about the final diagnosis.

Patients who receive a diagnosis often wish to learn more about the disease and the tests used to determine the diagnosis. This section is here to assist.

Feed-A-Child

Take a good look into the eyes of hungry children and you will see children with real hopes, real fears, and a very real need to eat. It doesn’t matter where they live. All that matters is that they need someone to change their world.

Millions of people around the world are in desperate need. Poverty, death, disease, and disasters wreak havoc in their lives. Little children are the ones who suffer the most from these problems, and they are the ones most desperately in need of your help. Changing their world is easier than you think. Amazingly, thousands of these children are receiving a nourishing meal at a cost of just pennies a day, through our Feed-A-Child program.

The focal points for Canada’s treatment and research programs are the Arthritis Centres (AC), located in all academic rheumatology divisions in Canadian medical schools. These Centres provide exemplary patient care, high standards of graduate and undergraduate teaching, and excellent opportunities for clinical and basic science research.

AC Grants are made to Canadian medical schools, which in turn have made arrangements with one or more of their affiliated teaching hospitals for the provision of laboratory space and other professional and scientific amenities necessary to the success of the Centres.

Directors of the Centres are full-time members of the staff of the medical schools concerned and are not remunerated under AC Grants. The Society funds are used to provide essential teaching and research resources not available from tax funds, or through other research fund-granting programs.

For the 2009/2010 granting year, The Society is pleased to continue its funding which provides support for the activities of the Arthritis Centres. In addition, for the 2009/2010 granting year, The Society will begin funding the three Canadian pediatric Arthritis Centres, for a total of 19 Arthritis Centres funded.