Bon Secours St. Francis only S.C. organization to receive national grant.

Many readers may recognize St. Baldrick's Foundation from paper shamrocks purchased for a donation toward childhood cancer research at the grocery store each March.

But for the Bon Secours St. Francis Cancer Center, the foundation means a $50,000 grant to help expand the center's clinical trial initiatives through a clinical research nurse coordinator, according to a news release. Bon Secours was the only South Carolina organization to receive one of St. Baldrick's 17 new infrastructure grants, which awarded a total $819,000 to health care institutions across the country.

"By expanding the number of clinical trials St. Francis can offer, we make it easier for patients to stay in the community for treatment rather than traveling out of the area," Dr. Hal Crosswell, director of the AYA program at Bon Secours, said in the release.

The nurse coordinator will ensure that every patient in Bon Secours St. Francis' Adolescent and Young Adult Cancer Care program is screened for research trials, often patients' best hope for a cure, according to the release.

"Work we do now can achieve benefits that we don't know exist yet," he said in the release. "By...