Sanford golf tournament raises $10K for child cancer nonprofit

Families of children diagnosed with cancer in North Carolina now have a source of financial and personal support.

Children’s Cancer Partners of the Carolinas serves as a "safety net" even if affected families have to go outside of the state to pursue life-saving treatment for their child.

On April 12, the "High Hopes" charity golf tournament at Sanford’s Carolina Trace Country Club stepped up the war against pediatric cancer. Participants raised $10,000 for Children’s Cancer Partners of the Carolinas.

"Children’s Cancer Partners is the epitome of supporting families going through exactly what we are experiencing," Griffin Coxe said.

Coxe, along with wife Brittany, served as the tournament’s coordinator.

In September 2021, the Coxe’s 5-year-old daughter Perry complained about a pain in her side. Eventually, a friend suggested they take her to a hospital emergency department to have it checked out.

"Eight hours later, we had the diagnosis the we never expected to hear," Brittany Coxe said.

The diagnosis was cancer. They went to Duke Children’s Hospital with worries about the costs ahead of them. Duke referred them to Children’s Cancer Partners of the Carolinas.

"The coolest thing about Children’s Cancer Partners is they make sure you can focus on that and your family and they take everything else off your plate when it comes to that," Griffin Coxe said.

It includes help with transportation, food and lodging around the treatment care.

Laura Allen, executive director of CCP says that promise is in force even when the family needs to leave the state to pursue specialized care.

"For instance proton therapy, they would have to go to the Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia or go to Atlanta to get that treatment," she said.

MacKenzie O’Quinn’s 18-month-old daughter Molly Margaret’s neuroblastoma cancer was described by doctors as a very rare form, a one in 5 million case occurrence. It required a trip to Boston. The CCP support followed the family there.

"We were just floored that there was an organization that provided for families walking through like the unimaginable in that way and would walk along-side us," O’Quinn said.

Within 36 hours of treatment, 90% of her daughter’s symptoms were gone.

"She’s effectively cancer-free, which is so so exciting," O’Quinn said.

Fundraising of sorts, even through charity golf tournaments as organized by the Coxe family can help make a big difference for affected families.

"People are going to get that call that we got in September and we want to make sure that they have the support and we know that Children’s Cancer Partners wants to do that," Griffin Coxe said.

In Wake County alone, Carolina Cancer Partners of the Carolinas assists 145 families. By the end of this year, they expect to have 2,000 families in the Carolinas enrolled in their program.