USF pediatric research got a boost when Mary Ann Massolio shared half of the $50,000 award she received from the Lightning Foundation with the research lab of Cameron Tebbi, MD, professor of pediatrics, chief of the Division of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology in the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine, and director of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology at Tampa General Hospital.

From left, Mary Ann Massolio, Dr. Charles Lockwood, and Dr. Cameron Tebbi.

Massolio received the Tampa Bay Lightning Community Hero Award for her work with the 1 Voice Foundation, a non-profit children’s charity aimed at providing educational, psychosocial and financial resources while funding pediatric cancer research in Dr. Tebbi’s USF lab. Massolio is executive director of 1 Voice Foundation.

Dr. Tebbi’s research is devoted to leukemia, specifically, acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), a cancer involving blood and bone marrow that progresses quickly. ALL strikes about 6,000 people a year, two thirds of whom are children. The risk for developing ALL is highest in children younger than 5 years of age.

The Lightning Foundation presented the award to Massolio at the Tampa Bay Lightning’s Oct. 28 game, with Dr. Tebbi and Charles Lockwood, MD, senior vice president of USF Health and dean of the Morsani College of Medicine, were at her side.

Here’s a video of the presentation by the Lightning Foundation…

Photo courtesy of Kimberly Constantine