80th anniversary concert raises funds for rare cancer research

MD Anderson’s 80th Anniversary Celebration Concert took place on March 24, 2022. It was an evening filled with music, dancing, hope and philanthropy. The event raised $10.5 million, exceeding the initial $8 million fundraising goal. Hundreds of MD Anderson teammates and their families and friends, as well as many of MD Anderson Cancer Center’s Board of Visitors members and generous donors, gathered at the Toyota Center for a memorable concert with The Beach Boys, Todd Rundgren, Christopher Cross, The Commodores and the Generation Radio band, featuring Jay DeMarcus of Rascal Flatts and Jason Scheff of Chicago. Actor and musician John Stamos served as emcee, and several familiar faces from MD Anderson were part of the program. A group of faculty and employees representing our mission areas, and who played critical roles in our COVID-19 institutional response, gathered on stage with Stamos and were applauded by the crowd. Jeffrey Foskett, a grateful patient receiving treatment for anaplastic thyroid cancer at MD Anderson, had a vision to celebrate eight decades of MD Anderson and to help our cancer patients at the same time. A singer, songwriter and record producer best known as a musician for The Beach Boys, Foskett enlisted his friends in the music industry to put together a concert to benefit MD Anderson’s Anaplastic Thyroid Cancer Program and other research efforts focused on rare types of cancer. To commemorate this milestone in MD Anderson’s history, a white guitar owned by Foskett and signed by all the evening’s performers was presented to Peter WT Pisters, M.D., president of MD Anderson as a gift of thanks to the institution. Plans are underway to display it on our Texas Medical Center Campus. Executive Event Chairs Suzie and Don Sinclair and Diana and Jeffrey Foskett, as well as many honorary chairs, event chairs, co-chairs and a host committee representing MD Anderson supporters and donors across the country were instrumental in the evening’s success. Donor support has had a profound impact on the patients treated at MD Anderson, as well as on countless others around the globe who benefit from our groundbreaking research discoveries, our efforts to educate the next generation of cancer care providers and our work to identify risk factors to prevent cancer. The generous gifts made in honor of MD Anderson’s 80th anniversary will help fund new research initiatives, which lead to a multiplier effect with further government and industry support. This expands the depth and breadth of our research and ultimately gets us closer to fulfilling our mission to finally end cancer. Request an appointment at MD Anderson by calling 1-877-632-6789 or online: https://my.mdanderson.org/requestappo... Video produced in collaboration with Ward & Ames Special Events.