THON 08

12500 children are diagnosed with cancer in the US every year
more children die each year of cancer than any other disease.
more than 1 in 4 children diagnosed with cancer will not survive.
treatments for many children with cancer last between 3 to 4 years and can cost up to $25000 month.
Doctors speculate that they will find cures within our lifetime only if the needed funding for pediatric cancer research can be secured.


In 1972, Charles Miller founded the Four Diamonds Fund after the motivation of his sons death. According to him, he had to take his son 5 hours north to Boston to get proper cheap treatment. when his son, Cris passed away, he decided to do something for the families here in Pennsylvania and not drive 450 miles up to Boston to get cancer treatment. He got a doctor from Boston and started the cancer treatment in a hospital in Hershey. So he decided to start a fund that will basically help families financially with the treatment. The four diamond fund is supported by THON where students of Penn State go out and get as much sponsors as they can for a weekend dance marathon. You might be wondering how much money would a weekend dance marathon able to make to support the kids. I myself dance trough the weekend wondering how much can we actually help. Besides having the kids dance with us, and over 10000 penn state students dance non stop for 48 hours, THON 08 made $6,615,318. 6 million dollars for the kids!!! unbelievable!! now THON and the four diamond fund supports up to 2000 families with full medical treatment.
Lets make cancer history.