Gift from the Utah Jazz owners and 5 for the Fight founders will expand pediatric cancer research and treatments, and create family centers for relatives of patients at hospitals in Salt Lake City and Lehi.
(Photo courtesy Utah Jazz/Melissa Majchrzak) Ryan and Ashley Smith talk about their plans to buy the Jazz and and other sports and entertainment properties from the Miller family on October 28, 2020.
Utah Jazz owners Ryan and Ashley Smith announced during Monday’s game at Vivint Arena that their foundation is making a $20 million donation to Primary Children’s Hospital, to expand pediatric cancer research and treatments.
The donation — being made in conjunction with the 5 for the Fight nonprofit associated with Qualtrics, the company that Smith co-founded — will facilitate “clinical trials, faculty recruitment, research personnel and equipment, social work and psychology support, and improvement of the overall patient experience,” according to a news release issued jointly by Intermountain Healthcare and Qualtrics/5 for the Fight.
The gift will also establish so-called “5 For The Fight family centers” — spaces for families of children receiving treatments for cancer and blood disorders at both Primary Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake City as well as the hospital’s new Larry H. and Gail Miller Family campus in Lehi, which is expected to open in 2024.
Primary Children’s Hospital partners with pediatric experts from University of Utah Health to treat some 2,500 cancer patients as young as newborns each year.
“Cancer has impacted everyone. It is a terrible disease and even more insidious when it impacts children,” Ryan and Ashley Smith said in a prepared statement. “We are grateful to partner with Intermountain and Primary Children’s Hospital as they expand their work in cancer research and treatment. We are committed to helping end cancer and knowing the power of research to do that. In addition, the 5 For The Fight family centers in these two Primary Children’s Hospitals will be powerful places for families to connect and support each other as these children engage in their fight against cancer.”
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