Read for Nora is a read-a-thon that will take place between March 9th and March 23th, 2009. Anyone can participate! All you have to do is find sponsors, and then record the pages you read for those two weeks!

The money will be donated to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in memory of Nora Falk.

Nora Falk was a student at the Convent of the Sacred Heart who suffered from Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia, a common childhood cancer caused by abnormal white blood cells. Cure rates for this type of cancer are generally high, but Nora's case was different. After receiving treatment, her cancer returned. Following her relapse, Nora was admitted to Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital (MSK) in New York City to undergo a bone marrow transplant.

MSK is a world-renowned cancer center that has extraordinary expertise in diagnosing and treating the cancer spectrum. In addition to their excellent patient care, MSK has many research teams who are constantly discovering new and better ways to treat pediatric cancer, and have also pioneered many successful new treatments.

Sadly, Nora passed away from complications from leukemia following her bone marrow transplant, four days after her fourteenth birthday.

'Nora' means light, a name that her family and friends agree is especially fitting for someone who truly illuminated all the lives she touched. Although Nora lost her battle with cancer, she continues to be an inspiration to all who knew her, and to many who didn't. Nora had many interests, but one of the things she loved the most was reading. She spent a lot of time in the hospital undergoing treatment, and reading was one of the only things she could do there. Although reading is often a solitary activity, Nora loved to share her enthusiasm for reading with others by trading books and talking about what she was reading.

Nora would not have wanted other children to go through what she did, and she also would have loved to continue to share her passion for reading. Read in memory of Nora and all other victims of childhood cancer. Get sponsored and record the pages you read to help Memorial Sloan Kettering in their quest to combat childhood cancer!!

All funds will be donated to pediatric oncology research at MSK in hopes that better treatments can be developed and take us one step closer to preventing and curing all types of childhood cancer.


If you cannot be a reader or a sponsor, please consider making a small donation to Nora's fund! Please make checks out to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center or MSKCC and make a note on the check that the donation is in memory of Nora Falk.

Donations can be mailed to:

Aubrey E. Hanft
Annual Giving Officer
Development Department
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
633 Third Avenue, 28th Floor
New York, NY 10017


Click HERE for recent news/updates!!

Thank you for your support and interest in this project! Please sign the guestbook if you have a chance!


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Last year in 2008, we raised over $8500 for pediatric cancer research at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in Nora's name!

Nora's fund at MSK is always be open, so if you would like to make a donation to support pediatric cancer research at any time, you are always welcome to do so.

Click here to donate online!

If you have any questions about this project, please contact Margaret Beneville at mbeneville@gmail.com. Thank you!