Kyra's Hope Foundation and Sam Day Foundation Announce Collaboration to Accelerate Childhood Cancer Research

MERCER ISLAND, Wash., May 19, 2026, Kyra's Hope Foundation today announced a research collaboration with the Sam Day Foundation, a Portland, Oregon based nonprofit dedicated to advancing less toxic and more curative treatments for children and young adults facing the most destructive cancers, including sarcoma and brain tumors. The two organizations will combine complementary strengths to accelerate progress in pediatric cancer research, where too many children still face limited treatment options, slow research progress, and far lower funding than adult cancers receive.

Childhood cancer remains the leading cause of death by disease among children in the United States, yet receives only a small share of national cancer research funding. Rare and aggressive pediatric cancers, including Ewing sarcoma, the disease that took both Sam Day and Kyra Gupta from their families, often see even less. The new collaboration is designed to change that equation by pairing rigorous scientific review with technology-driven research acceleration.

Over the years, the Sam Day Foundation has built a thoughtful and deeply respected Scientific Advisory Board that helps identify and support promising research with rigor and care. Through this collaboration, Kyra's Hope Foundation will leverage that Scientific Advisory Board to help evaluate and screen potential research projects with scientific guidance and credibility, ensuring funded work meets a high bar for both promise and feasibility.

At the same time, Kyra's Hope Foundation will contribute its strengths in technology, AI, systems thinking, and research acceleration to amplify and scale the Sam Day Foundation's work already underway. Engineers, data scientists, and AI specialists from the Kyra's Hope network will work alongside research teams supported by both foundations to advance data analysis, computational modeling, and the technical infrastructure that increasingly determines how fast biomedical research can move.

"This collaboration brings together everything our two families have learned the hardest way possible," said Gautam Kumar, co-founder of Kyra's Hope Foundation and Kyra's father. "Sam Day Foundation has built a scientific review process that the pediatric research community trusts, and Sam and Kyra were taken by the same disease. We bring engineering, AI, and an urgency that comes from losing our daughter. Together, we can move faster than either of us could alone, and the families still walking this road are the reason both of our foundations exist."

The collaboration brings lived experience, scientific guidance, community, and innovation into one shared effort to move childhood cancer research forward faster and more meaningfully. Both foundations will continue to operate their independent programs while jointly evaluating new research opportunities, sharing technical and scientific resources, and coordinating on initiatives where combined effort can meaningfully shorten the path from idea to impact.

For Sam. For Kyra. For every child still waiting for hope.

About Kyra's Hope Foundation: Kyra's Hope Foundation (EIN 41-2583689) is a Mercer Island, Washington based 501(c)(3) nonprofit inspired by Kyra Gupta's extraordinary courage. The foundation supports children facing cancer and their families while accelerating cures for incurable childhood cancers through research funding and embedded technical expertise that helps research move faster. Since its founding, the foundation has supported more than 300 families through its Care, Community, and Cure programs.

About Sam Day Foundation: The Sam Day Foundation is a Portland, Oregon based 501(c)(3) nonprofit pursuing less toxic and more curative solutions for children and young adults facing the most destructive cancers, including sarcoma and brain tumors. Founded in memory of Sam Day, who was treated for Ewing sarcoma, the foundation funds research projects through a rigorous, expert-led grant selection process. More information at samdayfoundation.org.

Media contact: info@kyrashope.org