Canines-N-Kids Foundation

The Canines-N-Kids Foundation was established out of the profound love between our kids, our dogs and a shared experience in one of the most difficult challenges they will ever face — cancer. We have an ambitious mission, to put an end to the devastating cancers kids and our canine best friends both develop, including osteosarcoma (bone cancer), brain cancers, lymphoma and leukemia.
The Canines-N-Kids Foundation was created to:
• Raise awareness of the cancers that kids and canines share in common, and the promise of comparative cancer research to accelerate the development of better medicines and a cure for them both — a rare “Win-Win."Close the funding gap that has stood in the way of making meaningful progress towards curing these shared cancers by bringing new audiences and critical resources together
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• Bring experts together from veterinary to pediatric medicine, translational research and genomics and help them to work collaboratively and constructively to help find a cure — for both kids & canines. Working across species, disciplines and institutions (academia, the private sector, government, advocates for childhood and canine cancer) our goal is to facilitate collaboration and break down barriers to progress.Canines-N-Kids is leading the way and seeks progress in the following key areas:
• Transformative translational research to help us to understand more about the underlying fundamentals and drivers of the cancers kids and canines share, and to maximize the potential of those discoveries.
• Comparative clinical trials to evaluate new treatments & approaches involving novel treatments, including immunotherapies and/or drug combinations that can slow or stop the progression of cancer in canine cancer patients, improve quality of life, decrease devastating toxicities and longer-term treatment and to translate these results into advancing childhood cancer research.
• An integrated and accelerated approach to help kids & man's best friend beat cancer that is faster, more predictive, and less costly and will speed the drug development process to find a cure for our precious kids and beloved canines.

1) Goal: Raise awareness of the cancers that kids and canines share in common, and the promise of comparative cancer research. Strategy: to spark an important conversation, beginning with critical facts about childhood and canine cancer through engagement with the childhood cancer and animal health communities at the local and national levels, with and amongst researchers and medical professionals, the news media, and industry. 2) Goal: Close the funding by bringing new audiences and critical resources together. Engaging and bringing together non-traditional audiences to invest in the fight against shares childhood and canine cancers, particularly at the corporate and grassroots levels . 3) Goal: to advance an integrated and accelerated approach to help kids & man's best friend beat cancer that is faster,more predictive, and less costly and will speed the drug development process to find a cure for our precious kids and beloved canines. Strategy: working through new collaborations between pediatric & veterinary oncologists, funders and others, to form teams and an infrastructure to address: identifying elements of the comparative oncology "toolbox" that need to be developed; identifying/bringing together a parallel aligned infrastructure for conducting comparative clinical trials; communicating Comparative Oncology and developing the "Business Case" for comparative cancer research.

From academia, to industry and from across the United States, Canines-N-Kids Foundations has assembled a dedicated Board and world class Medical and Scientific Advisory team of respected leaders and experts with the subject matter know-how, passion and energy to lead this one-of-its kind, national effort. We are proud also to have built strategic alliances with many cancer foundations (including some of the largest, as well as a large network of smaller organizations), a large number of leading veterinary and medical institutions, as well as within non-traditional corporate as well as biotech and the pharmaceutical industry. In addition to Foundation staff capacity and professional assistance where needed, we are building a volunteer capacity to help our Foundation staff execute efficiently certain programs. In addition, Canines-N-Kids Foundation is also an active member of the Coalition Against Childhood Cancer (CaC2), CureFest, a member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, an active advocate alongside the Alliance for Childhood Cancer and the National Brain Tumor Society, participant in the Comparative Oncology Consortium (C30), and supporter of the Comparative Brain Tumor Initiative.

We are proud in just over a year to have built an incredible team: Our Board / Advisory Group includes top pediatric and veterinary experts from around the country, as well folks from industry and government as well as a nationally known expert on nationally known governance & fundraising. We have also carried out the first inaugural Paws for a Cure Summit, bringing together for the first time nearly 100 top pediatric and veterinary oncologists, genomics experts, translational researchers, major cancer foundations and industry with a goal to develop a road map for integrated drug development for shared pediatric and canine cancers. This action-oriented meeting resulted in a series of next steps, including the formation of several collaborative task forces that are now building on the progress made at Paws for A Cure. Finally, CnK's next major endeavor is a Research Symposium (November 2018) designed to bring forward the research projects with greatest translational potential and ability to accelerate progress toward better medicines and a cure for kids and canine patients.

CnK's Grassroots Push
To really bring the necessary attention and focus to bear on the beast that is shared cancer in kids & man's best friend, we've also launched and are planning a couple of initiatives meant to engage and raise awareness at the grassroots level.
1. the “Two By Four Race Against Childhood and Canine Cancer". This race series, now up and “running," aims to help us “Crush Cancer at Both Ends of the Leash". We plan to take it around the country to bring together our wider communities around cancer and how it affects especially our kids and canine friends. Our first event was incredibly well-received, and lays the foundation for expanding it in size and scope.
2. the BARKE SALE is our Foundation's signature community engagement and fundraising program. It will allow kids, groups and corporations anywhere to engage with us in raising awareness and funds for potentially transformative cancer research to help kids and our canine companions. This program has just been launchedIn late November, CnK its signature community and grassroots awareness and fundraising program. The BARKE SALE is designed anyone anywhere - to join in raising awareness and funds to fight the devastating cancers kids & dogs both develop. Starting in 2018, we will have the week in May dedicated to the BARKE SALE and a national push to and to spread the word about this wonderful new program and our efforts to “Crush Cancer at Both Ends of the Leash!" We are rolling this program out in our home market of northern Virginia and the Greater DC area, while also targeting a few other select markets around the country and introducing the program more broadly via social media.