Steve Kelly’s Philadelphia Inquirer colleagues gathered at the Pen and Pencil Club in Philadelphia last evening to remember Steve and raise funds for Kelly’s Heroes.
The event was hosted by Bill Marimow, an Inquirer editor, who recounted Steve’s affable manner in the newsroom and his skill in designing compelling front pages.
“I called him Merlin because he was such a wizard at it,” said Marimow.
Kelly’s Heroes was honored to be joined by Ellen Lilly-Foreman, RN, Steve’s nurse at Johns Hopkins, and Ellen Roberts, senior associate director of development at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins. Roberts thanked the attendees for their support and explained how the dollars donated by Kelly’s Heroes are directed to continue the pancreatic cancer research that Steve was so committed to as a clinical trial participant.
“Although he’s not here with us, we stand on Steve’s shoulders,” said Roberts.
Roberts also discussed Johns Hopkins’ new Bloomberg–Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, announced last month with the support of two $50 million gifts from former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and philanthropist Sidney Kimmel, founder of Jones Apparel Group. An additional $25 million for the center was contributed by more than a dozen additional supporters.
The gifts from Bloomberg and Kimmel are challenge grants, said Roberts, and the Kimmel Cancer Center must match the $50 million in donations with its own fund raising.
Immunotherapy aims to boost and activate the body’s own natural defenses to fight against abnormal cancer cells. Research at the institute will focus particularly on pancreatic, melanoma, colon, urologic, lung, breast, and ovarian cancers.