One Breast Cancer Survivor Fights Back

As so many of us know, cancer can strike like a cyclone—disrupting long-laid plans, fracturing families, and cutting short more than 500,000 American lives each year.

University of Colorado alumna Margaret Grohne (BA ’58) is too aware of the toll cancer can take—as a breast cancer survivor, and having lost her sister and brother-in-law to cancer. Rather than staying on the sidelines, she and husband David (BS ’58) decided to take action, donating more than $10 million over the years to the University of Colorado Cancer Center (UCCC), among the many CU programs they have supported.

This year, recognizing the Center’s research track record and potential to spark new prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and cures, the Grohnes pledged more than $2.6 million toward research in the areas of breast cancer, stem cell research, and cancer vaccines. “The Grohnes want to support high-quality research here in Colorado, and they’ve been incredibly generous to us,” says UC Denver professor Andrew Thorburn, who holds the Grohne Endowed Chair in Cancer Research.

One way this gift will be used is for research that may retard or prevent the onset of cancer by manipulating a tumordevelopment process called autophagy.  For exploration in such leading-edge realms, obtaining federal grants can be difficult—yet these are often the most promising areas for research. So such early-stage research relies heavily on private supporters whose gifts can have a multiplier effect when donor seed funding later leads to federal research grants.

Make a gift to support the Cancer Center here.

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