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History

In March 1972, just two months after her second birthday, Kelly Anne Dolan received the diagnosis of Aplastic Anemia at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Aplastic Anemia, is a malfunction of the bone marrow where blood cells are produced. The marrow is unable to manufacture red cells (necessary to carry oxygen throughout the body), white cells to fight infection or platelets to control bleeding. This inability to produce sufficient blood products led to many episodes of spontaneous bleeding requiring emergency trips to the hospital and frequent blood transfusions (an average of five to fifteen per month), as well as many lengthy hospitalizations due to infections.

It was during these hospitalizations that Kelly Anne’s parents, Peggy and Joe Dolan, met other parents and children at the hospital and learned of a myriad of hardships these families faced because of the serious illness of one or more children. They learned that so many of their hospital friends had incomes depleted, especially single parents, due to overwhelming medical and out-of-pocket expenses.

Kelly Anne's condition evolved into a rare form of leukemia in the summer of 1976. She died from the effects of her illness on October 5, 1976, a little less than three months before her seventh birthday on New Year's Eve.

The day after her death, Kelly Anne's father set the Fund in motion. The first form of support came in response to Kelly Anne's obituary notice, which requested memorial donations to the fund. Almost $8,000 in memorials was raised as seed money for the Kelly Anne Dolan Memorial Fund at that time. The mission of the Fund was rooted in the hospital experiences and observations of the Dolan's and the realization that there were little or no resources available to assist families in these situations. Therefore, the mission of the Fund was formed to provide for the uninsured needs of families caring for terminally, critically and chronically ill, seriously disabled or severely injured children through advocacy, education, information and financial assistance.