SAUGUS — The John Estrella Foundation is having a Comedy Night to Kick Cancer in the *#!% Thursday, Nov. 14 at Giggles Comedy Club. Tickets for the event are $35 online and $45 at the door.
The Foundation’s mission is to extend the lives of kidney cancer patients through support, awareness, and finding of cutting edge research.
According to the event flier “In 2024 it is estimated 82,000 adults in the U.S. will be diagnosed with kidney cancer. The fight to cure kidney cancer needs the support of businesses and individuals in our community.”
Elicia Estrella, the president of the John Estrella Foundation for Cancer Research, is the daughter of John Estrella whose battle with kidney cancer inspired the creation of the foundation.
“We’re a small family run grassroots organization started in memory of my father. He was a veteran in the Vietnam War and a big person in the community,” Estrella said.
According to Estrella, her father coached at the high school and was always volunteering. However, perhaps one of his biggest impacts came when he was diagnosed with kidney cancer.
“They told us that there had been no advances in kidney cancer research in 25 years and the life expectancy was six months. That’s so hard to hear when you’re a patient or a family member of a patient…He was very optimistic and he joined several clinical trials,” Estrella said.
The goal of the clinical trials wasn’t to cure him though, it was to help advance kidney cancer research for the people that would come after him.
After his passing in 2005 the Estrella family made this decision to continue John’s fight and to pay it forward like he was trying to do.
“We wanted to raise money for research and awareness of kidney cancer. Over the years we’ve evolved to helping out cancer families…We have a small Helping Hand grant and we’ve done free webinars for patients and other healthcare providers to attend,” she said.
The group is 100% volunteer based and 90% of the funds they receive, including the ones from the Nov. 14 event, go directly to their research grant and Helping Hand grant.
The group hosts multiple events a year with their biggest one being a golf tournament/Casino Night Dinner which took place in July this year.
“This year was our biggest turnout ever for the golf event, which was fantastic, and people came to the dinner,” Estrella said.
According to Estrella, getting the word out about all the research being done and all of the resources available to families is extremely important. She also hopes to get the word out about the Helping Hand grants so more people apply to them.
“We’ve only had one or two people apply for the grant over the years. We do have the ability for more people to apply…We’d love to be able to run out of funds every year by giving out to families who need help,” she said.
The foundation is always looking for more volunteers to help with small events and to continue the work that they’ve been doing every year. To apply for a Helping Hand grant or to buy tickets to the event one can visit the John Estrella Foundation website.
