Saul Wisnia

Jimmy Fund Saul Wisnia

In May 1948, a nationwide radio audience first heard a twelve-year-old cancer patient known only as "Jimmy" as he was visited bedside by members of his beloved Boston Braves baseball team. An appeal for support followed, and since that moment, the Jimmy Fund has helped physician-scientists and staff at Boston's world-renowned Dana-Farber Cancer Institute provide the best cancer treatment available to children and adults today while developing cures for tomorrow.

The Jimmy Fund of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute documents the history of "New England's favorite charity" from the 1940s and 1950s, when celebrities such as Bob Hope and Jimmy Durante drummed up support for institute founder Dr. Sidney Farber, to the fund's ongoing relationship with the Boston Red Sox and such baseball stars as Ted Williams. Readers will discover how these efforts-and the generations of New Englanders plunking coins into movie canisters or biking, golfing, skiing, and walking for the cause-have helped raise more than $200 million and save countless lives. The Jimmy Fund of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute captures each step of this remarkable journey, including the uplifting 1998 return of Einar "Jimmy" Gustafson to Dana-Farber after fifty years of anonymity and presumed death.