The Steven Vanover Foundation’s vision is to fulfill Steven’s legacy by eliminating sarcomas and other rare cancers.

After a rare form of cancer took the life of Steven Vanover in 2015, his friends and family formed this organization to honor Steven’s legacy of brightening the lives of others. In a short period of time, it has transformed into something much greater.

Lack of options

Facing limited treatment options for his rare form of cancer, Steven traveled to New York to see doctors at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) and had planned to undergo surgery there. MSK is one of the few places in the country where he could get advanced treatment for desmoplastic small round cell tumor (DSRCT), a rare form of sarcoma that often affects young adults and children. Unfortunately, due to the aggressive pace of his disease, he was not able to undergo the surgery he needed out of town.

To this day, there are limited treatment options for sarcoma because there is a lack of funding for rare cancer research. And the treatment options that do exist may require sick patients to travel far and wide, which can be detrimental to their quality of life.

Big differences start with small ideas

We’re here to make up the difference through community engagement and fundraising. While the government and private sectors fund research for more common types of cancer—noble efforts that we support—we are the organization raising funds to find a cure for sarcoma, a rarer and underfunded cancer.

What started as a way for friends and family to honor and memorialize Steven’s life has quickly morphed into an organization that’s making a national difference. To date, the Steven Vanover Foundation is the largest funder of a Phase II clinical trial for DSRCT—the only one of its kind. The organization has also helped to establish the Norton Cancer Institute genomics lab to make the most advanced cancer treatment available accessible to patients in the Louisville, KY area and beyond.

Ultimately, our goal is to find a cure for sarcoma by partnering with scientists, researchers and health care organizations that share in our vision. Along the way, we remember and honor the namesake of our organization through scholarships and patient outreach, such as providing a meal to cancer patients and their family members and caregivers on Valentine’s Day. It is our hope that one day in the near future, a sarcoma diagnosis comes with a sense of hope, and that the joy that Steven brought to this world will carry on.

We need you

It will take a village to find a cure for sarcoma, and we’re just getting started. But we believe it’s possible. And we will keep working until we get there.

We send our deepest gratitude to those who have supported us since our inception, and ask you to join us in the fight.