Russell Wilson, Kasey Kahne Raise Over $1 Million to Fight Childhood Cancer
Russell Wilson presented a check for $1 million to the Seattle Children's Hospital before the Seahawks' game against the Dallas Cowboys last Thursday that will be used for kids' immunotherapy treatments, which he says has a 93 percent success rate.
"We were able donate over $1 million, which really gives me the chills, because that's what life's really all about — us being able to give back and donate," Wilson said, speaking about the $1,060,005 raised for the Seattle Children's Hospital Strong Against Cancer initiative
"God has given me a great opportunity to play the great game of football," he continued, "but also he has given us all a great opportunity to share and give back. I think about my kids one day, I think about other people's kids, and I don't want it to be my kids, I don't want it to be yours. So ultimately, it's an opportunity to really save kids' lives, and it's really working, that's the coolest part.
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"It's an amazing thing, 93 percent success rate out of (42) kids. That's just an amazing thing to be able to save kids' lives," Wilson said.
Wilson's Why Not You foundation teamed up with Nascar driver Kasey Kahne's foundation and the Safeway supermarket chain to donate the $1 million raised to the hospital.
A large sum of the money was raised at a celebrity golf tournament and auction called The DRIVE that Kahne and Wilson have participated in over the past three years, along with Safeway stores' collecting donations from customers.
In 2014, the Seattle Children's Hospital and Research Foundation launched a $100 million initiative to support research aimed at curing childhood cancer. Wilson signed on to be the "team captain" in the Strong Against Cancer initiative that seeks to end childhood cancer within the next decade.
"Annually, pediatric cancers receive less than 3 percent of the National Cancer Institute budget, which is why it's so important for all of us to support initiatives like Strong Against Cancer," Wilson previously said at a news conference explaining why it's important for him to be to be involved in the initiative. "The scientists working on immunotherapy have the treatment and the results to get us to a place where childhood cancer is no worse than a common virus. All that's needed now are the resources to bring it to every kid who needs it."
