The Foundation’s efforts were once again successful in continuing our quest for brain cancer eradication.  Your help this year was more appreciated than ever, given our current economic environment!

Dr. Conrad and his associates at M.D. Anderson Cancer Research Center were especially appreciative that we could continue our support in this difficult time.  We were able to donate $20,000 to his team’s efforts this year.

All contributions will be directly applied to his research to eliminate brain cancer. Thank you for your continued support and generous donation!  We appreciate each and every dollar!

Our Annual Pre-Run Team Crawfish Boil was fun and exciting.  If you weren’t able to attend, we hope you can join us next year.  We moved the ‘party’ from the Richburg’s house to a local icehouse this year.  Between the excellent crawfish, many appetizers, cold beer and room to roam, all who attended had a great time.  The kids also enjoyed the bounce house and games!  Please plan to bring your friends and family next year – we do take donations the day of the event!  [All event expenses are paid for by supporters of the Foundation that have asked that their donation be applied to such, so please be assured that your dollars go directly to the research and efforts we support!]

The Dr. Marnie Rose Foundation’s ‘Run for the Rose’ (that we attend each year with our JCMF Team) was once again a huge success.  Over $436,000 was raised for brain cancer research at M.D Anderson and the Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital.

Please visit and peruse our website for new information, pictures from this year’s activities and information for next year’s Run!

Please note that donations and memorials are welcomed throughout the year.  We would be happy to inform the person of your choice of your good intentions – just include that information with your gift.

We invite you to share our information and mission with your friends, co-workers and places of business.  Spreading the word is the best way to continue our support of brain cancer research initiatives.

Thanks again!  We hope that you and your loved ones are safe and blessed throughout the year!

Most sincerely,

The John C. Merchant Foundation

From the Benefactors:

Following are excerpts from June 2009 e-mails to the Dr. Marnie Rose Foundation from various doctors at MD Anderson, that included the JCMF:

"The work you do and the money raised is unbelievably generous and greatly appreciated. This help inspires us to work harder for the development of new therapies for our patients.  The initial contributions that you have made have helped put three novel therapies into the clinic already; the EGFRviii peptide vaccine, the novel brain specific anthracycline Berubicin, and the oncolytic adenovirus Delta-24-RGD (now in the third patient!).  Thank you for your continued support and help."                    Dr. Charles Conrad        

"On behalf of the Brain Tumor Center at MD Anderson Cancer Center, and on my personal behalf, I wish to express my utmo st gratitude for your awesome dedication and contributions to our efforts in advancing Brain Tumor Research, and in helping accelerate finding a cure. As your gifts imply, we have several highly worthy Investigators who are pushing the frontiers of Science in our field. We can be collectively proud of their continuous accomplishments. The Leadership that you and your family have demonstrated over the past several years is inspiring and heart warming. I see the immense enjoyment you are projecting in having found this hugely effective way of influencing the course of Research. To you and to all your "teams", I say thank you. With my warmest personal regards." Dr. Ray Sawaya

"Many kudos to all your helpers and supporters to make such a successful effort. Your support to our research program is most valuable to our progress."                                                                                          Dr. W.K. Alfred Yung

"This additional funding really help s our efforts towards the development of molecular diagnostics/ personalized medicine for patients with glioma."  Dr. Ken Aldape