PACELINE & Medical College of Georgia Foundation Advancing Innovative Cancer Research: Powered by Community
For Immediate Release: February 14, 2025
For media inquiries:
Cayla Long, clong@paceline.org (843) 318-4754
Ian Mercier, imercier@mcgfoundation.org (706) 294-4510
PACELINE & Medical College of Georgia Foundation Advancing Innovative
Cancer Research: Powered by Community
Augusta, Ga. - The Medical College of Georgia Foundation and its affiliate nonprofit organization, PACELINE, now in its seventh year, continue to make tangible progress in the fight against cancer benefiting Georgia & beyond.
Since 2019, twenty-six community funded innovative cancer research projects have been made possible through PACELINE grants, with an emphasis on both early career faculty and high impact community research projects. This pipeline of innovative cancer research has already generated $9.2M of prestigious grants from National Institutes of Health (NIH) bringing significant investment to Georgia’s only public cancer center, part of Augusta University and WellStar MCG Health. In addition, the NIH estimates this investment will generate over $24M of economic impact for our region.
This year PACELINE is expanding its signature fundraising event, PaceDay, to make supporting cancer research more accessible for all. For the first time, PaceDay, scheduled for October 05th, will feature Walk, Run & Ride participation options enabling a broader public engagement of its mission to end cancer. Walkers, Runners & Riders will all come together for a Finish Line Festival at the Augusta Common celebrating fundraising efforts as the ‘community face’ of the Georgia Cancer Center.
With Hurricane Helene canceling PaceDay 2024, PACELINE used the time to survey its supporters with a goal of making 2025 a true ‘comeback year’. Feedback was strongly in favor of broadening participation options as a means of continuing to build on PACELINE’s success to date.
Since 2019, PACELINE has raised almost $1.7M for innovative cancer research and is on the road to $2M this year.
Ian Mercier, CEO Medical College of Georgia Foundation commented:
“We are proud to invest in PACELINE with its mission to end cancer. The way PACELINE carries out this mission is two-fold. Firstly, it generates investment for grassroots cancer research through its own community of participants, partners & volunteers. Through actively participating in Paceline’s year-round movement, this broad community of individuals, organizations and corporate teams collectively represent the community face of the Georgia Cancer Center. It is the combination of community-funded research leading to NIH grants, through annual activities like PaceDay, that positively affect the Georgia Cancer Center’s pathway to National Cancer Institute designation.”
Martyn Jones, President, PACELINE commented:
“By expanding our main event format into Walk, Run & Ride, we have an opportunity to accelerate support from both existing and new audiences in Augusta and beyond, including corporate teams and our partner institution Augusta University. The event operations required to deliver this new format are substantial and made possible thanks to our founding partners, Medical College of Georgia Foundation – it is their support that enables 100% of all participant-raised funds to be invested in innovative cancer research at the Georgia Cancer Center.”
The mission of the Medical College of Georgia Foundation is to improve the quality of life of the people of Georgia, the nation, and the world by supporting the advancement of education, research, and patient care at the Medical College of Georgia.
https://mcgfoundation.org/
PACELINE is a movement of communities & organizations setting the pace to end cancer. Paceline has a place for everyone, offering opportunities to be involved. Walk> Run>Ride for Cancer Research!
Join our movement. Together, we set the pace to end cancer. https://www.paceline.org/
