One family’s determination to create a legacy is helping connect researchers across the country to advance rare cancer research.
Jed Taxel was 36 when he died from a rare cancer, just six months after his diagnosis. During his illness, he asked his family a question: “What will be my legacy?”
His parents, Mark and Linda Taxel, answered by creating the Jed Ian Taxel Foundation for Rare Cancer Research (JEDi)—turning their loss into a commitment to connect the people and resources needed to make progress against rare cancers.
Through JEDi, the Taxel family committed $5 million to Case CCC to establish CURE (Conducting Unprecedented Research and Exploration): The Rare Cancer Initiative.
Led by Case CCC Director Gary Schwartz, MD, CURE is building connections among researchers and cancer centers across the country to accelerate discoveries for cancers that can be difficult to study because individual types affect relatively small numbers of patients.
Case CCC’s consortium structure—bringing together Case Western Reserve University, University Hospitals and Cleveland Clinic—along with collaborations with other institutions across the country, expands the expertise and resources available to CURE.
For Mark Taxel, that ability to bring people together is central to the initiative’s potential.
“It’s like one plus one equals five.”
— Mark Taxel
What began as a family’s promise to preserve Jed’s legacy has become something larger: a growing community connecting expertise, ideas and resources to create new possibilities for people with rare cancers.
Make the Next Connection Possible
Philanthropic support can bring researchers, institutions and resources together around questions that might otherwise be difficult to pursue—creating new opportunities to advance research for patients with rare cancers.