LITTLE ROCK — Major league baseball pitcher Cliff Lee and his wife, Kristen, have created a $1 million endowed research chair at Arkansas Children’s Hospital to honor the doctor who treated their son’s cancer.
The endowment will provide the research chair’s holders with funds for research, treatment and education in the areas of pediatric hematology and oncology, hospital officials said Tuesday.
“For us, it was a no brainer,” Cliff Lee said in a written statement. “We thank God every day that our son is alive and healthy.”
The research chair will be named for its inaugural holder, Dr. Robert Saylors, who treated Lee’s son, Jaxon, in 2001 when he was 4 months old.
Saylors treated Jaxon for acute myeloid leukemia, a cancer that forms in the bone marrow.
The infant spent four months undergoing chemotherapy at the Little Rock hospital and later received a bone-marrow transplant in San Antonio.
Jaxon is now healthy and cancer-free, and he continues to visit Children’s Hospital in Little Rock for follow-up appointments.
The gift will create the29th endowed research chair at the hospital, spokesman Kila Owens said.
Saylors was not available for comment Tuesday, she said, adding that he has not determined how he will spend the endowment.
The research chairs, in a range of areas of pediatric health, serve as recruiting tools for the staff by providing a consistent flow of research funding, said John Bell, president of the Arkansas Children’s Hospital Foundation.
“It helps to recruit the best medical talent and, in the case of Dr. Saylors, to retain the best medical talent,” he said.
The full $1 million will be set aside, generating interest to fund the Jaxon C. Lee-Robert L. Saylors III, MDEndowed Chair in Pediatric Hematology/Oncology.
A foundation committee caps the amount research chairs can draw off of endowments each year, Bell said. This year, a $1 million endowment would generate about $40,000 for research and treatment, he said.
The hospital plans to bring the Lee family to Arkansas for an investiture ceremony honoring Saylors before the start of spring training, Bell said.
Lee, an Arkansas native, is a 2008 Cy Young Award winner. The Benton native, who helped lead the Texas Rangers to an American League West Championship and a World Series appearance in the most recent season, is now a free agent.
Arkansas, Pages 14 on 11/24/2010