Baila Janock embodies generosity in its many forms. For over 30 years, she has combined her gifts of time, treasure, and talent to make a long-lasting impact on Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and its patients. She has been an Institute volunteer, platelet donor, and captain of Team Irv in the Boston Marathon® Jimmy Fund Walk. And as one of the founding members of the Dana-Farber Society, a special community of donors who include Dana-Farber and the Jimmy Fund in their estate plans, she has ensured that the critical research and treatment she cares about are funded well past her lifetime.
Recently, Janock generously pledged $1 million to establish the Baila A. Janock Fellowship Fund to support a fellowship focused on pancreatic cancer. Fellowships like this attract the brightest minds in the field and prepare a new generation of physicians and scientists to become tomorrow’s leaders in clinical and laboratory investigation and patient care.
“Baila has been a phenomenal champion of our early career faculty,” said Robert Mayer, MD, faculty vice president for academic affairs at Dana-Farber and the Stephen B. Kay Family Professor of Medicine, who led the Fellowship Program in Hematology/Oncology for 35 years. “Since 1996, 25 of these extremely talented individuals have had the good fortune to be Janock Fellows. Many of them have developed lasting relationships with her. Baila’s continued support of Dana-Farber and our gastrointestinal cancer program in particular has been simply extraordinary.”
In addition, Janock made a significant gift to fuel capital projects and strategic initiatives that will be recognized with a named space, linking her generosity in a tangible way to the Institute’s lifesaving mission. To Baila, this physical representation of her legacy provides an opportunity to show others how their support could also change lives now and into the future.
Janock’s reasons for making gifts through her estate are numerous. For her, it was important that a fellowship would continue in perpetuity and that she could reduce future estate taxes. She valued the peace of mind she gained from deciding now about the legacy she would leave. “Giving during my lifetime has always been important to me, and I want to continue doing so after my death,” she says. “It was important to me that Dana-Farber receive a significant gift from my estate. The Institute has always been my home away from home and it is a privilege to be a part of the Dana-Farber family. I receive far more than I could possibly give financially.”
For more stories about the impact of philanthropy at Dana-Farber, please visit DanaFarberImpact.org.