The Pediatric Patient and Family Advisory Council
Meet the Members
Cyndi MacKinlay
I am the mother of Andrew, a 12-year-old cancer survivor. Andrew was diagnosed in 1998 with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and treated at Children's Hospital Boston and the Jimmy Fund Clinic. He concluded treatment in 2000 and remains in remission.
I am one of the founding members in 1999 of the Pediatric Patient and Family Advisory Council (PPFAC) and the pediatric co-editor of Side-by-Side, a quarterly newsletter for patients and family members of Dana-Farber and its affiliates in cancer care. I am also currently chairing the Education for Children with Cancer subcommittee.
In 2003, I was awarded a scholarship in the Survivorship-Researcher Mentor Program through the National Cancer Institute's Office of Survivorship and the Lance Armstrong Foundation. I am also the founder of the Kids Cancer Stamp Project (www.kidscancerstamp), an effort to establish a semi-postal stamp for childhood cancer awareness and research, and spoke on this topic at a national childhood cancer event in Washington, D.C. As a four-year rider in the Pan-Massachusetts Challenge, I ride for Team Perini, where Andrew is now a patient. Andrew and I have spoken numerous times on behalf of the Jimmy Fund and other childhood cancer organizations in an effort to promote greater awareness and funding for childhood cancer research.
I live in Norwell with my husband, Glenn, and their three children.
