Driving Miss Darby

For those who missed it, my family dedicates one night of Chanukah to charity. We light the menorah and instead of receiving gifts, we give them. My children, husband and I talk about the charity, its work and importance. My kids bust open their piggy banks and together we donate money to a worthy cause.

Then I send them to bed, drink a bottle of wine, watch It's A Wonderful Life and jump naked into the nearest pool.

It's a routine.

I've been wondering which charity to choose when I got this email from Darby. Readers will remember her from a few weeks back - a high school friend who is facing cancer with strength, grace, and wisdom.

Here is an excerpt:

Dear Friends,

I am a lucky girl! I have been blessed with a loving family, a loving husband and AWESOME friends. In this holiday season when most of us are struggling to get a few decorations out, my neighborhood girlfriends have generously given of their time to create a charity to raise money for Dr. Emens' research trial.

The ‘Driving Miss Darby Charity’ has been created to actively support the research efforts being made to find a vaccine aimed at disarming Breast Cancer.

Our goal is to support the efforts of Dr. Leisha Emens and her trial patients as she continues in her quest to develop an innovative immune-based therapy for the treatment of breast cancer. Immune-based therapy is a novel cancer treatment strategy that uniquely recruits an individual’s immune system to fight cancer. This approach takes advantage of the body’s own ability to fight cancer in a highly specific way that avoids the debilitating side effects commonly associated with standard cancer treatments like chemotherapy and radiation. Successful immune-based therapies should also have a long-lasting treatment effect due to the ability of the immune response to persist and become re-activated at the first sign of tumor growth or relapse. Every successful cancer treatment being used today started as a clinical trial, a three-step research process to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of a new treatment.

Dr. Emens’ vaccine is currently in Phase I, Part II of the clinical trial process. To date, 41 women, who are Stage IV, metastatic breast cancer patients, have willingly given of their time and resources to be a part of this vaccine study. For 6-8 months we must find our way to Johns Hopkins to receive the trial vaccine and other conventional cancer therapies. We are asked to be at the hospital weekly and, during the vaccine injection week, daily in an effort to scientifically monitor our immune response to the trial medication. With such an intensive schedule, it has been hard to find the number of women necessary to complete the initial Phase of the trial and move forward to a more wide-base study.

The Driving Miss Darby Charity is working towards a goal of raising funds to support Dr. Emens’ research and provide awareness in the breast cancer community about her innovative therapy. During this holiday season, as you consider your end of year charitable contributions, please consider donating to the Driving Miss Darby Charity - where 100% of the funds will be given directly to Dr. Emens via the Sydney Kimmel Cancer Center.

Please reply to with your pledge of donation by Friday, December 19th, at which time we will be making a presentation to Dr. Emens.

Donations should be mailed to our treasurer:
Driving Miss Darby Charity
c/o Pam Fusting
327 Red Magnolia Court
Millersville, MD 21108

I hope you will join with me and my neighborhood friends in supporting Dr. Emens' research.

Merry Christmas!

Darby Steadman
Patient #11, Phase I, Part II
Dr. Emens Breast Cancer Vaccine Trial

Merry Christmas, indeed.