Founded 2002 Location Beirut | Type Non-profit Area served Lebanon | |
Key people - Salman Salwa
(Chairman)
- Tamer Gaby
(Vice President)
- Jabr Farouk
(Treasurer) | ||
The Children's Cancer Center of Lebanon is a non-profit medical institution dedicated to the comprehensive treatment of pediatric cancer. The center is affiliated with St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, founded by Lebanese U.S. comedian and actor Danny Thomas. He had a dream to open a similar medical institute in his ancestral home of Lebanon.
Danny Thomas's children Marlo and Tony Thomas pursued his dream until the center opened in Beirut on April 12, 2002. The center, which is located on 56 Rue Clémenceau, works in association with the nearby American University of Beirut Medical Center (AUBMC). The mission of the center is to save children's lives using the protocols of St. Jude. The center depends completely on donations and fundraising programs.
On April 12, 2002, the late Prime Minister of Lebanon, Rafik Hariri, several ministers of the Lebanese government and members of the Lebanese Parliament, as well as major officials from the American University of Beirut, joined a delegation from the American Lebanese Syrian Associated Charities and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and the board of the Children's Cancer Center of Lebanon for the inauguration ceremony of the center. Additionally, parents and families of Lebanese children treated at St. Jude's in Memphis also attended the opening ceremony.