Why did Georgetown University rename its cancer research lab in honor a donation of just $5,000? Because the money was raised by a nine year-old girl.
Taylor Sevin was just 8-years-old when her father was diagnosed with a fatal diagnosis of sarcoma, a malignant cancer. She accompanied him to Lombardi Cancer Center and was always by his side during his treatments there. Alan Sevin lost his fight with the disease at the end of October 1999.
With this determination, the little girl began her crusade to help Georgetown’s researchers find a cure. Two months after her father died, Taylor and her mother, Kym, arrived at Lombardi with a Tupperware container filled with $155 in bills and change that Taylor had collected from friends and family to donate for cancer research.
Then in early 2001, Taylor returned to present yet another donation. Through a cross-country letter-writing campaign and an event at her Catholic school, in which students paid 50 cents to dress out of uniform, she had raised $5,000.
After this presentation, the renamed Alan and Taylor Sevin Laboratory has been a constant reminder of a girl and her dad.
To date, Taylor has raised close to $8,000 and she is planning a gala fund-raiser and writing to country music stars Faith Hill and Tim McGraw asking for their participation.