Safeway Raises Nearly $10.1 Million to Fund Prostate Cancer Research
Safeway Inc.’s month-long prostate cancer campaign raised nearly $10.1 million as part of the company’s ongoing effort to fund research geared toward finding a cure for the number one cancer affecting men.
“We are grateful to our customers for their extraordinary generosity,” said Larree Renda, Safeway EVP and chair of the Safeway Foundation. “Thanks to their contributions, we are funding leading-edge research at some of the nation’s top cancer centers and helping researchers move closer to a cure for prostate cancer. Our employees are important ambassadors for the cause and also deserve a great deal of credit for the success of this effort.”
For more than a decade, Safeway, one of the largest corporate supporters of cancer research, has dedicated the entire month of June to raising funds at its stores, production facilities and corporate offices for prostate cancer research. The company works with the Prostate Cancer Foundation to identify and provide grants for promising research. For example, research funded by Safeway has played a role in the recent approvals of three new drugs that are extending the lives of patients with advanced metastatic disease and in the identification of 25 genotypes (varieties) of prostate cancer.
Other recent advancements made possible by Safeway funding include the development of new biomarkers, such as circulating tumor cells (CTC), which are paving the way for better methods to diagnose patients, predict outcomes and measure a patient’s response to treatment. In the coming year, Safeway funding will support testing for 28 new drugs in early clinical development and eight that are currently in advanced evaluation, and the advancement of CTC technology that can shorten the approval times for new treatments.
Throughout the prostate cancer campaign, the company’s U.S. and Canadian stores provide customers an opportunity to make donations at the checkstand when shopping at their local Safeway, Dominick’s, Randalls, Tom Thumb, Genuardi’s, Vons, Pavilions, Carrs and Pak N’ Save stores.
Along with prostate cancer research, Safeway is one of the largest corporate supporters of breast cancer research, having raised nearly $94 million for the cause. In addition, the company contributes to a broad range of charitable and community programs and in 2010 raised or donated more than $200 million to education, hunger relief, health and human services and programs focused on assisting people with disabilities.
Safeway operates 1,694 stores in the United States and western Canada and had annual sales of $41.1 billion in 2010.