CORPORATE
ANGEL NETWORK FLIES 25,000th CANCER PATIENT
PepsiCo
offers milestone flight to young cancer patient
White
Plains, NY (January 20, 2007) - Natalie
was happy to be returning home after a week of treatment at New
York's Memorial Sloane Kettering Cancer Center. The six-year old
native Floridian travels to New York to see Dr. Brian Kushner,
a specialist in the treatment of neuroblastoma, a childhood cancer.
But instead of working her way through security lines, risking
delays from commercial airlines, and navigating cold and flu viruses
in crowded airports with her weakened immune system, her flight
was arranged by Corporate Angel Network, a non-profit organization
whose sole mission is to arrange flights on corporate business
jets for cancer patients of all ages to treatment.
Consumer
food and beverage company PepsiCo, a long-time participant in
Corporate Angel Network, hosted the milestone flight for this
little girl and her mother, who accompanied PepsiCo's CEO on this
flight. Major U.S. corporations offer available business flights
to cancer patients traveling to recognized treatment facilities
across the country; 530 of them generously lend empty seats to
cancer patients on their routine business flights.
When
diagnosed with cancer, a family's life changes forever. Treatment
options and financial concerns are just part of the critical decisions
that must be made. Many of those decisions center on acquiring
the best treatment available and how to get to those locations.
As is the case with many cancer patients, Natalie's immune system
is not equipped to fight off infection and exposure to colds (or
this year's flu) that could seriously jeopardize her life. For
many cancer patients and their families, traveling for medical
reasons becomes a major financial burden, but with the help of
Corporate Angel Network, travel can become a less stressful part
of their lives.
"Working
with Corporate Angel Network has given PepsiCo the opportunity
to meet and support some very special, courageous people," said
Patrick Cunningham, PepsiCo's Director of Aviation. "From the
moment we completed our first CAN flight 23 years ago, we knew
we were a part of something incredibly special. We'd like to see
many more companies join the CAN network and experience what it
means to put an unused seat to such an honorable use for people
in great need."
Founded
in 1981 and based in White Plains, New York, Corporate Angel Network,
a public charity, www.corpangelnetwork.org, now includes 530 participating
corporations, along with a team of 50 part-time volunteers and
five paid staff who work with patients, physicians, corporate
flight departments and leading treatment centers to coordinate
medical travel needs of cancer patients with the business flight
schedules of our participating corporations. Corporate Angel Network
typically transports about 200 cancer patients a month.
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