How your PMC donations benefit Dana-Farber

(NECN: Boston, Mass.) – Thousands will ride their bikes 190 miles across Massachusetts to raise money for cancer research and treatment as part of the Pan Mass Challenge. This will be the 30th anniversary of the PMC. Since the first ride, more than $239 million dollars has been raised to fun cancer research and treatment. Dr. Edward Benz, Jr., president of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, explained to NECN how the money is used. He joined NECN’s Good Morning Live from the Suffolk University-NECN Downtown Boston Studio. “Over the past 30 years that money has allowed Dana Farber to support the kind of research that’s not supported by other traditional means. We’ve used that money to recruit some of the best young scientists in the world. We’ve used that money to support their early out-of-the-box ideas for research, that are not quite ready for the more standard kind of funding,” Dr. Benz, Jr. said. “That money has, in a very big way, contributed to the development of the early field of cancer genomics.” Dr. Benz, Jr. also said that the money goes toward the building of the new Yawkey Center for Cancer Care. Watch the complete interview in the video player above. To donate, visit PMC.org or the Team NECN donation page.