About
Lion Heart is committed to finding a cure for breast cancer. Founded in 2006 by Kathleen van Rijn – a two-time breast cancer survivor - Lion Heart supports Smilow Cancer Hospital at Yale New Haven and the Yale Cancer Center by endowing research grants.
Please note that the web address in this video has been changed from lionheart.everdayhero.do to our new address at lionheart.donordrive.com
How does Lion Heart raise funds?
Coordinated and led by Martha Phelan, who is our founder Kathleen van Rijn’s sister and a long time swim coach, Lion Heart promotes and supports “Lap-a-Thons” in Connecticut which are fundraising swim events involving high school swimmers from the Southern Connecticut Conference and younger swimmers from private swim clubs. In these Lap-a-Thons, we have also had participation from Fordham’s University’s Men and Women’s Swim teams and Long Island University’s Swim Team.
Lion Heart has always promoted and benefited from voluntary initiatives by donors who have organized their own creative events in support of Lion Heart, usually during the October, Breast Cancer Awareness Month. (See “Other Activities” on this website).
Over its lifetime, all the Lion Heart events have raised over $ 1,850,000 to fight breast cancer
How does Lion Heart spend the funds raised?
100% of money raised goes into the Lion Heart Fund for Breast Cancer Research. There are no overhead or administrative costs.
In a competitive process, we receive applications for research grants, from the Yale Cancer Center researchers looking for pilot funding to begin interesting new avenues of exploration. Our funding has the potential to aid breakthrough research and truly make a difference.
Each February we report to our donors the results of the prior year's grants. Each of our grants is tracked over the long term so that we understand the impact we are having. In May of each year these annual tracking results are shared with our donors.
With the research capacity of Yale Cancer Center, and our funding, our goal is to find a cure for breast cancer.
How was Lion Heart established?
Kathleen van Rijn founded Lion Heart upon her breast cancer diagnosis in 2006. She now is a two-time survivor (2006 and 2010). She and her 5 sisters started Lion Heart by organizing a walk in New York City, where she resides. The walks evolved into other activities: the Lap-a-Thons have become the main fundraising event. After 18 years, Kathleen decided to retire from her leadership in 2024, while remaining an ardent supporter and advisor of Lion Heart. Her sister Martha Phelan – a long time prior coach of the SCC – has been and remains the main coordinator of the Lap-a-Thons.
Why are we called Lion Heart?
When Kathleen was diagnosed in 2006 and started to fight the disease, her father was dying. He gave her strength with his words: "You have the heart of a lion. You will beat this." His final gift, the Lion Heart name.