History

The Susanna and Lucy DeLaurentis Charitable Foundation is a 501(c)(3) public charity formed in 1999 to fund research directed at finding cures for life-threatening childhood diseases and to provide scholarships for college-bound high school seniors with superior academic and extracurricular achievements despite the challenges of a chronic disease or other serious health impediment.

The Foundation honors the memory and spirit of Susanna DeLaurentis, who was ten years old when she died from complications of neuroblastoma, an aggressive, treatment-resistant cancer of the nervous system. Neuroblastoma is the second most common solid pediatric cancer, with about 600 new diagnoses in the United States every year.

Susanna’s older sister, Lucy, died on her 29th birthday of cystic fibrosis (CF), the nation’s most common inherited disease. Despite enormous strides in available treatment therapy since the defective CF gene was discovered, there is no cure for cystic fibrosis.