Friday, April 27, 2007
A license plate designed by KU professor Greg Thomas will be available for purchase by this fall. The plates, adorned with a pink breast cancer ribbon and the words “Driven to Cure,” will raise money for cancer research and education.
A Senate bill for the license plate design was created by Sen. Barbara Allen, a breast cancer survivor. The bill was passed and Gov. Kathleen Sebelius will sign the bill Friday morning in Topeka. The plates will be sold for $85, and $50 from each plate will be donated to the KU Cancer Center.
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Thomas was diagnosed with kidney cancer in 2000 while living in Los Angeles. He said the hospitals and services there were conveniently located and high caliber. When he moved to Kansas three years ago, he said he was surprised to find that there wasn’t a central program for cancer research and treatment.
Thomas, professor and chair of design, said the plates were a “call to action.” He said he first started thinking about helping others with cancer after he had an operation for kidney cancer in 2000.
“When you’re sitting in a bed in an ICU ward and you’re all stapled up, you keep thinking to yourself, ‘What have I been doing with my talent all these years?’ ” Thomas said. “I am going to do something with what I know.”
Thomas was diagnosed with kidney cancer in 2000 while living in Los Angeles. He said the hospitals and services there were conveniently located and high caliber. When he moved to Kansas three years ago, he said he was surprised to find that there wasn’t a central program for cancer research and treatment. He said most people had to travel to Houston or the Mayo Clinic to receive treatment.
Thomas started working with Sen. Allen, who had already worked on a bill that allowed taxpayers in Kansas to check a box on tax return forms, to donate a percentage of their funds to cancer research.
The money raised from the plates and the tax check-off will raise awareness and help the KU Cancer Center to achieve recognition by the National Cancer Institute as a “comprehensive cancer center,” Thomas said.
Director of the KU Cancer Center, Roy Jensen, said cancer research in Kansas did not have one central location, but was made up of many different working parts. The different areas involved are in Lawrence, Kansas City and Wichita.
“Potentially, some cancer biologists would locate specifically on West Campus,” Jensen said. “There is a goal that would create a comprehensive cancer facility with basic translational and clinical research and care all in one.”
Jensen said he wanted to reach the entire state in one direct way. This would take funding from the license plates for research nurses and staff to support breast cancer clinical trials. Jensen said he hoped for success like that of the University specialty plates. He said KU and Kansas State plates have raised several hundred thousand dollars during the past five to 10 years.
Although everything will be ready to go after the signing of the bill today, Thomas said there was still a lot of work to be done. For production to start, the KU Cancer Center must raise $10,000 for the Kansas Department of Motor Vehicles and guarantee the sale of at least 500 plates. Thomas said he would be working on private donations, a fundraiser, brochures and marketing material to generate interest and funding.
“It doesn’t end with the signing,” Thomas said. “We need to sell these things and get people interested in buying this.”
Kansan staff writer Danae DeShazer can be contacted at ddeshazer@kansan.com.
— Edited by Kelly Lanigan
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