Annual graduation for pediatric cancer patients at VCU Medical Center

By Malorie Burkett

The VCU Medical Center will hold a special ceremony for current and former patients of the ASK Pediatric Hematology and Oncology Clinic who are graduating from high school.

The event takes place Friday, June 1, from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Medical Sciences Building auditorium, 1217 E. Marshall St. Registration takes place in Rooms 104-105.

Co-hosted by the clinic and the Hospital Education Program, the ceremony will recognize 16 seniors who have managed their academic responsibilities while undergoing treatment for cancer or sickle cell disease. This year’s students are from Chesterfield, Dinwiddie, Hanover, Westmoreland and York counties, Colonial Beach and the cities of Hopewell, Poquoson and Richmond.

Billy K. Cannaday Jr., Ed.D., superintendent of public instruction and executive officer of the Virginia Department of Education, will deliver the keynote speech. Andrew Thexton, a member of the Board of Trustees of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and a cancer survivor, also will speak.

The Association for the Support of Children with Cancer (ASK) and the Virginia Sickle Cell Awareness Program scholarship recipients will be awarded.

The graduating seniors will be recognized by Education Consultant Alma Morgan and Kamar Godder, M.D., chair of the VCU School of Medicine’s Division of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, as well as their local high school representatives.