Kyra’s Hope Foundation Launches Grant Program
COMMUNITY
Mercer Island based nonprofit launches a new model combining research funding and engineering and AI expertise to accelerate progress in rare childhood cancers like Ewing sarcoma.
Kyra's Hope Foundation today announced the launch of the Kyra's Hope Research Grant Program, a new initiative focused on accelerating cures for incurable childhood cancers, beginning with Ewing sarcoma, a rare and aggressive cancer that continues to have devastating outcomes for children.
The announcement coincides with what would have been Kyra's 13th birthday. Kyra, a Mercer Island child remembered for her extraordinary courage and optimism, lost her life to metastatic Ewing sarcoma after a three-year battle that included surgeries, chemotherapy, radiation, and multiple relapses. She was treated with the same old and toxic chemotherapy regimens that were developed more than 40 years ago.
In the last 6 months, the Mercer Island community has lost two children to Ewing sarcoma, including Kyra. Ewing sarcoma strikes hundreds of American children each year; that two of them lived in one small community, and were lost within months of each other, is the kind of loss that no family and no neighborhood should ever have to absorb.
Despite childhood cancer being the leading cause of death by disease among children in the United States (per the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), childhood cancer research receives only approximately 4% of the National Cancer Institute's annual budget, with rare cancers such as Ewing sarcoma receiving only a fraction of that share.
The Kyra’s Hope Research Grant Program combines research funding with embedded engineering and AI expertise to help research move faster. Alongside direct funding, the foundation will place engineers, AI specialists, and data scientists directly alongside research teams to support data analysis, computational modeling, and research infrastructure. "Our goal is not just to fund more research, but to help research move faster," said Gautam Kumar, co-founder of Kyra's Hope Foundation and Kyra's father. "There are brilliant scientists dedicating their lives to solving these diseases, but many labs do not have access to the engineering and AI expertise that could accelerate discovery. We want to bridge that gap while staying deeply connected to the children and families living through this reality every day."
Advances in AI and computational research are creating new opportunities to accelerate discovery, but many childhood cancer labs still lack access to the technical expertise needed to fully leverage these capabilities, particularly in rare and underfunded cancers such as Ewing sarcoma. The research grant program builds on the foundation’s broader mission to support children facing cancer and their families. Since its founding, Kyra’s Hope Foundation has supported more than 300 families through Hope Boxes, milestone celebrations, financial assistance and community care initiatives designed to bring comfort, dignity, and hope during treatment.
"Kyra taught us what courage, resilience, and hope truly look like," said Alka Kumari, co-founder of Kyra's Hope Foundation and Kyra's mother. "Even while enduring unimaginable pain, she continued to dream, smile, and care about others. This foundation exists so that more children have a better chance at life, and so families feel less alone while walking this journey."
The inaugural award,“The Kyra's Hope Research Grant in Memory of Kyra Gupta” will be announced in fall. Each future grant will honor children whose courage continues to inspire the foundation’s mission. By carrying their names forward into the research itself, we ensure that every discovery this program funds is rooted in the courage of a real child, and that no family who has walked this road is ever forgotten. Applications are open at research.kyrashope.org.
The Kyra's Hope Research Grant Program will prioritize collaborations focused on rare and underfunded childhood cancers, with an initial emphasis on Ewing sarcoma research, translational studies, and technologies that can accelerate discovery and clinical progress.
Researchers interested in applying, and software engineers and data scientists interested in joining the Kyra's Hope Fellowship volunteer pool, can sign up at research.kyrashope.org.
About Kyra's Hope Foundation
Kyra's Hope Foundation (EIN 41-2583689) is a Mercer Island–based 501(c)(3) nonprofit inspired by Kyra'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.
For more information, watch this video or visit www.kyrashope.org.