News Release

June 28, 2007

Contact: Christopher DeFrancesco, 860-679-3914
e-mail: cdefrancesco@uchc.edu

Cancer Research Golf Tourney Marks 30th Year

All-volunteer Committee Has Raised More Than $2 Million

FARMINGTON, CONN. – It’s a milestone year for the UConn Cancer Research Golf Tournament.

For three decades now, a group of volunteers has dedicated itself to raising money to fight cancer. Over that time this golf tournament has raised more than $2 million for the University of Connecticut Health Center and the American Cancer Society. The 30th annual tournament will tee off from the Golf Club of Avon Monday, Aug. 6. The rain date is Monday, Aug. 27.

“This committee is all volunteers,” says Mark Yellin of Farmington, chair and founding member of the UConn Cancer Research Golf Committee. “They spend a lot of time at meetings and out soliciting funds for this cause. Considering how much we net, how much we raise, and who’s doing it, it’s quite an accomplishment.”

Proceeds from the 2002 tournament enabled the Health Center to establish the country’s first public tumor bank, which provides specimens for scientists to pursue causes and treatment of malignancies. The UConn Cancer Research Golf Committee has earmarked the proceeds from this year’s tournament for an expansion of the tumor bank. Last year’s tournament raised $158,000 for a new cancer prevention and control laboratory.

“Research is perhaps the most important component in the fight against cancer and, over the past thirty years, this tournament has raised a great deal of money to support the work of the investigators at the Neag Comprehensive Cancer Center," says Magda J. Stayton, associate vice president for development at the UConn Health Center. "We are extremely grateful for the extraordinary commitment of the volunteers who organize this event every year. Their efforts are crucial to our faculty as they continue to make progress toward better ways to prevent, diagnose and treat cancer.”

For more information about the tournament and how to be a sponsor or donor, go to http://cancer.uchc.edu/news/pdfs/brochure_golf07.pdf or call 860-679-4673.

More information about the Carole and Ray Neag Comprehensive Cancer Center at the UConn Health Center is available at http://cancer.uchc.edu/. 

A photo of (left to right) Carolyn D. Runowicz, M.D., director of the Carole and Ray Neag Comprehensive Cancer Center, Mark Yellin, UConn Cancer Research Golf Committee chair, his wife, Laura Yellin, and Peter J. Deckers, M.D., executive vice president for health affairs and dean of the UConn School of Medicine, is available at http://www.uchc.edu/ocomm/images/images_news/golftournament.jpg.

The University of Connecticut Health Center includes the schools of medicine and dental medicine, the UConn Medical Group, University Dentists, and John Dempsey Hospital, a Solucient Top 100 Hospital® 2006. Founded in 1961, the Health Center pursues a mission of providing outstanding health care education in an environment of exemplary patient care, research and public service. To learn more about the UConn Health Center, visit our website at www.uchc.edu.

Note: News professionals are invited to visit the Office of Communications homepage at www.uchc.edu/ocomm/ for archived news releases and other information.