Children's Cancer Caring Center
Our History
Back in 1965, the word “cancer” was whispered. The pool of knowledge about childhood cancer was scant. Only marginal services were available for children living with cancer, leaving no hope for their future. At that time, treatment for children with cancer was limited to “supportive” care, as medical science lacked the scope of pharmaceutical drugs, surgical techniques and hi-tech equipment used in more recent years, aimed at a “curative” goal. As a consequence, young children with cancer were faced with a bleak prognosis. And, to add to the hopelessness of that era, the only children accepted for treatment, were those from affluent families, as insurance companies refused to cover the costs of such treatments, which were deemed to be experimental. In the South Florida community, there was a crying need for a clinic that would meet the needs of children with cancer.
That year, the President of the University of Miami and the Dean of the University’s School of Medicine asked Lee Klein and her colleagues, Erma Podvin and the late Shirley L. Miller, to open and support a clinic for cancer-stricken children. They accepted this challenge without any way of anticipating the enormous responsibilities and profound scope and impact this endeavor would ultimately have on the thousands of children whose lives would be extended and saved. So, in 1965 the Clinic opened its doors with only a desk and a few chairs, having an estimated annual budget of $8,000, five doctors on staff, and two patients. Because no rent, telephone, or overhead expenses were paid, it was established that 100% of all funds raised would go directly to benefit the young patients. The physical atmosphere at the Clinic would later be improved to a beautiful, spacious, and uplifting pavilion for the children and their families.
Initially established in affiliation with the University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Medical Center, this all-volunteer pioneering venture has evolved into an unprecedented treatment clinic built on determination, love, and total devotion to the children. To meet the burgeoning population and growing needs of the South Florida community, the organizational clinic was reincorporated as the Children’s Cancer Caring Center, Inc. (CCCC) in 1989, backed by a Board of Directors comprising some of the finest community leaders. At that time, the Center was receiving 100 new patients each year, in addition to treating 400 follow-up patients annually. The patients were traveling to the Center from Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach Counties, and international patients were coming from South and Central America, the Caribbean, and from as far away as Russia. From 1995 to 2009, the CCCC relocated to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in affiliation with Cleveland Clinic Florida. In 2004, the CCCC established an outpatient clinic in Miami at the Medical Arts Tower of Baptist Children’s Hospital, where the entire CCCC program is located today.