About HCF
The Histio CURE Foundation was formed by parents and grandparents of children affected by histiocytic disorders. Some of us have a child fighting the disease, some of us are anxiously watching a child for signs of relapse, and some of us have lost a child to this disease. Some of us are adults patients.
We all have been involved in the histiocytosis community for many years and have supported numerous awareness, education, fundraising and family support efforts. We have joined together to focus our efforts on raising funds to support research towards a CURE for histiocytosis.
Our Mission
Our mission is to raise funds to support major research programs focused on finding a CURE for histiocytic disorders.
Our Vision
Our vision is one where families and histio groups work together to raise the funds needed to find a CURE for histiocytic disorders.
Our Goal
Our goal is a world in which histiocytic disorders are no longer a threat to the lives of children or adults.
Board of Directors
The Histio CURE Foundation is a volunteer-driven organization led by a Board of Directors comprised of members who are committed to fulfilling our mission and achieving the goal of raising funds to support research programs focused on finding a CURE for histiocytic disorders.
Lucus Gamble – President
Lucus began his histio journey at 31 years old after being diagnosed with Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis. He had multiple tumors on his cervical spine and pelvis. Fun fact: doctors removed Lucus’ cervical collar on the eve of his wedding. Not so fun fact: while on his honeymoon in Bali, numerous lesions developed on Lucus’ pelvis making it impossible to walk. Lucus resides in Alaska but was treated by Dr. McClain. After visiting Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, he quickly realized that he wanted to give back to the histio community. Shortly after finishing chemo, in 2012 Lucus participated in his first Hike for a CURE and soon after joined the HCF board. Lucus enjoys exploring Alaska, skiing, hunting, and boating with his wife, two children, and Alaskan Malamute.
Jennifer Rainey – Treasurer
Jennifer was introduced to the HistioCURE Foundation through Texas Children’s Hospital where her youngest child was being treated for Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis in 2013. Her daughter, Lilly, has high risk, multisystem LCH, with multiple relapses. The knowledge and treatments available were limited in 2013. However, there has been great progress, and this can be directly attributed to the funding and cooperation of Texas Children’s Histiocytosis Program and the HistioCURE Foundation. The foundation also provided Family Days that educated parents on new research and current treatment programs. Jennifer joined the board in 2021, to help further the goal of finding a cure for all the variations of histiocytosis. She has been married to her husband Steve for fifteen years and has two children.
Carolyn Caudle – Secretary
In 2015, Carolyn’s son Grant, who was 2 years old, was diagnosed with multisystem Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis involving his pituitary and lungs. After 6 months of chemo, Grant’s cancer was not improving, and his lungs were getting worse. The local children’s oncology clinic continued with the standard treatment protocol. Carolyn, feeling that this was not the correct choice for her son’s health, began looking for other options. After attending a Histio Family Day with the leading LCH specialists at Texas Children’s Hospital, she knew that the right choice was to travel to Houston to seek the best treatment for her son. Grant is now a healthy and thriving child with no active disease.
Mindy Kirkpatrick – Social Media and Outreach
Mindy has been a part of the Histio community for over 25 years. Her son, Taylor was diagnosed with multi-system disease at 13 months old. Most of his treatment has been at Texas Children’s Hospital with Dr. McClain. In 2003, after a brief remission, Taylor’s disease came back in his brain. He has suffered many disabilities from the disease but continues to fight. Mindy and Tay are proud to be a part of the wonderful research done at Texas Children’s Hospital and hope to encourage others to always keep fighting. They live in East Texas with their 4 dachshunds and enjoy their new hobby, raising finches.
Mai Ngo – Events Coordinator
Mai was initiated into the Histio community when her then ten-month-old baby was diagnosed with LCH. It has been six years since diagnosis and Benny, her son, is now a healthy, thriving seven year old boy. He was diagnosed with multi system bone and skin involvement and was fortunate enough to only need one year of treatment. Benny was treated in Northern California where he resides with his family by wonderful doctors who collaborated with Ken and Carl at Texas Children’s Hospital. Mai feels very fortunate that the community that the LCH has introduced her to has been so kind and supportive. Mai also feels very fortunate that the HistioCURE Foundation supports the efforts of Texas Childrens who ultimately helped her son and others like him. Mai and her family have attended Hike for a Cure since 2018, and she has been on the board since 2019. She hopes to continue with another annual tradition in Northern California once the hike ends in 2022.
The Histio Cure Foundation welcomes your donations! You can donate in two ways:
You can donate securely online right HERE.
Or, checks may be mailed to:
The Histio Cure Foundation
2750 FM 1463 Rd. #150-104
Katy, TX 77494
If your check is in honor or in memory of someone special, or if it is in support of a HCF event, please note that on the check so we can let your honoree know of your donation.
Our mission is to raise funds to support major research programs focused on finding a CURE for histiocytic disorders.
The Histio CURE Foundation is a federally approved tax-exempt organization under section 501(c)(3) the Internal Revenue Code, Federal Tax ID number 45-2050298. Your donation is tax deductible to extent allowed by law.
Our goal is a world in which histiocytic disorders are no longer a threat to the lives of children or adults.
The Histio CURE Foundation was formed by parents and grandparents of children affected by histiocytic disorders. Some of us have a child fighting the disease, some of us are anxiously watching a child for signs of relapse, and some of us have lost a child to this disease. Some of us are adults patients. We all have been involved in the histiocytosis community for many years and have supported numerous awareness, education, fundraising and family support efforts. We have now have joined together to focus our efforts on raising funds to support research towards a CURE for histiocytosis.
Zero. Each of the board members listed above donate their time and talents, drawing no salaries whatsoever. At times, we contract with professionals who have expertise that are beyond our board capabilities for things like legal and technical issues; however, those costs are paid for from an administrative fund that is covered by board members and friends of HCF.
100% of every dollar donated for research goes directly to the highest caliber researchers working to understand histiocytosis. The HCF mission is solely to FUND a cure for histiocytosis. There are several other organizations whose missions include providing education and patient support to the histio community. HCF has a specific goal of funding medical research so you can be assured that 100% of your donations will be directed to medical research unless you specify that you would like to support the operating budget.
We each have worked many years to raise funds to support research to find a cure for the disease affecting children like ours. We feel the time has come to take that fundraising to another level to send significant funds to accelerate promising on-going research and accelerate progress at better understanding, more effective treatments and ultimately a CURE for all histiocytic disorders.
Our job is to allow those researchers to work at a faster pace than currently possible with their existing funding. By providing extra funding to work in progress, we hope to accelerate the path to a CURE.
Existing organizations support a range of valuable missions including awareness, education, family, and patient support. The Histio CURE Foundation intends to supplement those efforts with a very specific focus on accelerating promising research that with substantial incremental funding can lead us to a CURE for these diseases in our targeted time frame.
Our vision is one where families and histio groups work together to raise the funds needed to find a CURE for histiocytic disorders.