research

Health Equity at Massey Inspires 5P Foundation Fund

Toward a Healthier Virginia for All

This article is part of an ongoing series of stories highlighting VCU Health programs and initiatives aimed at addressing issues of access and equity in health care.

Toward a healthier virginia for all graphic

Kamini Pahuja understands how helping others can be life-changing. By the early 1970s, she and her late husband, Subhash, had immigrated to the U.S. from India and navigated a new country along with all its challenges.

“We understand that help comes in all forms,” Pahuja said. “So we have always made it our priority to give back and help others.”

In 1999, her family formed the 5P Foundation with the goal of supporting long-term, high-impact projects to help others. This year, the 5P Foundation made a gift to VCU Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center to establish the 5P Foundation Fund, which supports cancer research and clinical trials aimed at addressing health disparities and improving health equity.

“Once our daughter, Meera, joined the medical field, she drew our attention to devastating health inequities that plague our system,” Pahuja said. “We now feel an imperative to also fund programs which are focused on health equity.”

pahuja family
The Pahuja family

For Pahuja and her family, Massey was a natural choice to support. Gordon Ginder, M.D., the center’s former director, treated her late husband from 1995 to 2007.

We are fortunate enough to be able to contribute to continuous innovation so that others may benefit from medical advances as well.

Kamini Pahuja

Pahuja credits Massey with ensuring a longer and fulfilling life for her husband thanks to the latest monoclonal targeted chemotherapy treatments that were available for Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma.

“My husband, Subhash, and my daughter, Gargi, both received care at Massey, and they were always taken care of holistically, capably and with compassion,” Pahuja said. “We want others who may be affected by cancer to be able to receive the same quality care.”

In recent years, Pahuja has also seen how Massey’s efforts to address health disparities align with the family foundation’s goals of ensuring excellent care is available equitably.

“We are fortunate enough to be able to contribute to continuous innovation so that others may benefit from medical advances as well,” Pahuja said. “It is also our hope that in our lifetime we see real changes in health inequities so that all patients may share in the same medical advances that we were able to benefit from.”