PHILIPSBURG —The Emily Whitehead Foundation, a Philipsburg-based nonprofit aimed at raising awareness and funding for advanced therapies and providing support for families impacted by childhood diseases, hosted its 10th annual Tee Off for T-Cells golf tournament fundraiser on Friday, July 12, at the Philipsburg Elks Lodge and Country Club.
The nonprofit, founded by Tom and Kari Whitehead alongside daughter Emily Whitehead, raised just over $50,000 during the golf tournament, placing the total amount raised by the charity at slightly over $500K. The event was presented by CNB Bank, which also contributed a $10K donation as a part of the event. Proceeds from the event will be used to support children and families going through cancer journeys and advanced therapies research.
“Our family started the foundation after our daughter,” Tom explained, sharing how after being diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia at age 5, Emily was the first child in the world to use CAR T-cell therapy, an advanced therapy that trained her immune system to actively attack the cancer cells in her body.
Though the treatment at the time was considered highly experimental, it was Emily’s final option after doctors had exhausted treatment options, recommended hospice care and advised Tom and Kari to expect her to live for just a few short weeks.
Luckily, Emily was a success story, and she has been cancer free since 2012.
“We have really had a blessed life since then and it is important to us to pay it forward, to help the next patient have (the) same outcome as Emily,” Tom shared. “You know, so many children lost their lives while Emily was in the hospital — kids she would play with in the playroom. We were lucky that didn’t happen to us. This is the path that we were put on and we’re supposed to help people while on it.”
Since Emily beat cancer, her story and the Whitehead family and foundation have been featured in The New York Times, were invited to the White House by President Barack Obama, helped families in over 50 countries get access to medical trials, were featured in the documentary “Of Medicine and Miracles” and more in their journey to raise awareness and finances for advanced therapies.
For George Eastwood, executive director of the Emily Whitehead Foundation, who has a background in cellular blood collections and manufacturing of related therapies, the awareness of Emily’s story has been crucial to the growth of advanced therapies.
“Now that the research is picking up, it’s really delivering these commercially available and clinical trial-based available treatments to more and more patients right now,” Eastwood explained. “Only about 20% of patients eligible to receive treatments like Emily’s are able to receive them. There are so many bottlenecks to work on, and we are working to identify how we can help the most.
“The way in which Tom tells the story, the miraculous nature in which his faith and all of the many decisions that were made by the Whitehead family made, really pointed to this as that next pillar of medicine. … We have so many people asking to help and we’re growing rapidly to do that.”
Though the foundation has grown, making a global impact, Tom noted that hosting events like the annual Tee Off for T-Cells golf tournament in Philipsburg is essential because it was the Philipsburg community that supported his family during Emily’s treatment.
“We wanted to do something in our hometown. We had so much support, especially when Emily was sick. Our foundation put together a plan in the last couple of years specifically to help patients from this area. We have global recognition of our foundation, but we have had so much support here,” Tom said. “There’s just a lot of people who have gone all in just to make a difference in that because, unfortunately, there’s so many people in our area that get cancer.”
Tom noted that the Philipsburg Elks Country Club also makes a donation each year for the golf tournament and that many of the golfers in the tournament have participated since its inception. Tom also credited the many Penn State students who participate each year in THON for helping ensure that the Whiteheads did not see a medical bill during Emily’s treatment, and said he hopes the foundation can help ensure that other families can have the outcome theirs did.
“With the half million dollars, in the last 10 years that have been raised, that’s really what has allowed for this global support to happen. Without the golf tournament — the local support — we would have never gotten to this point,” Eastwood said. “So however many people we help and whatever programs we build are a testament to that locally.”
To get involved in the foundation or participate in next year’s golf tournament, visit emilywhiteheadfoundation.org.
