LTJF Beneficiaries
Jonathan Jaques children's cancer institute
Children's village
At Jonathan Jaques Children’s Cancer Institute at Memorial Care Miller's Children's & Women's Hospital Long Beach, specially trained multi-disciplinary care team treat patients from the day of admission, to their time in the hospital and through follow-up treatment. Often this care team follows patients throughout their childhood and into adulthood, focusing on the child’s needs as well as their family’s needs.
Rally Foundation
Rally Foundation empowers volunteers across the country to raise awareness and funds for childhood cancer research to find better treatments with fewer long-term side effects and, ultimately, cures. Rally operates as "philanthropic seed investors in the next great discovery and utilizes a dual peer review process that supports research at all stages, from the initial idea to clinical trial."
By partnering with Rally, we will be able to provide much-needed support for critical research to find cures for childhood cancers. We also double our financial impact.
Spotlight on Our Funded Grants
Dr. Aniruddah Deshpande
Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute
Dr. Deshpande has been an annual recipient of our grant since 2019. His research focuses on developing more effective and safer therapies for childhood leukemia patients who have a specific chromosomal translocation (which Luke also had), making treatment more challenging. We actually met Dr. Deshpande and his colleagues in person. We toured his lab and were moved by his passion and grateful for the opportunity to see his work. Given the connection of his research to Luke's specific diagnosis, it was important for us to continue to work with him.
Dr. Carolyn Felix
The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
Dr. Felix is assessing the use of a drug called ribavirin as a new treatment for children with high-risk Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) – the type of leukemia that Luke battled. Dr. Felix hopes that a certain use or combination of ribavirin will inhibit the body’s production of a certain protein in children with AML that will allow doctors to use treatments that are less toxic to patients and more effective in treating AML.
Dr. Michelle Hermiston
University of California, San Francisco
Dr. Hermiston is developing a test for children with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) that can identify whether he or she has the T-cell subtype that makes them less likely to respond to common ALL treatments. This test is different in that it can be done at the time of the patient’s first diagnosis so that the patient can explore alternative treatments and drug combinations much earlier.
literally healing reading program at chla
Literally Healing at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles is an innovative reading program that gifts families at CHLA more than 65,000 books annually. During a period when literacy opportunities can be hard to find, Literally Healing helps strengthen reading skills and provides activities, events and story times to patients and families.
Long Beach Wilson High School Golf Team
Luke was an avid golfer and proud member of the Wilson High School Golf Team. In honor of Luke's passion for the game as well as his academic excellence, the Foundation will sponsor scholarships for graduating seniors.
Save Our Sick Kids Foundation
SOS Kids Foundation is an organization focused on outreach and education in support of sick children and their families struggling with secondary infections from compromised immune systems caused by cancer and other life-threatening diseases.
The Johnson family learned about the great work being done by SOS Kids through Luke’s infectious disease doctor, Dr. Tempe Chen, at Miller Children’s Hospital. Luke battled many infections due to a severely compromised immune system, which resulted from his chemotherapy. Without Dr. Chen’s close, personal dedication to treating Luke’s fungal infection, Luke may not have been able to receive his bone marrow transplant, providing a shot at remission and, ultimately, four more precious months with his family.
One in ten kids with cancer will die from an infection. Dr. Chen is passionate about finding improved treatments and the great work being done by Dr. Thomas Walsh and SOS Kids Foundation.
