On May 7, celebrities and advocates will come together at New York City’s Cipriani Wall Street for the 2014 Delete Blood Cancer Gala. The event will feature a special performance by Jessie J.

Other celebrities in attendance will include Georgia May Jagger, Dita von Teese, Veronica Webb, Kimberly Chandler, model Angela Bellotte, actress Anastasia Ganias, Elle Magazine’s Anne Slowey, Katharina Harf, and Michele Scannavini. The event will honor Evan Sohn (president of Bergen County’s own educational institution, Moriah) and The Sohn Conference Foundation, dedicated to the treatment and cure of pediatric cancer. The Foundation supports cutting-edge medical research, state-of-the-art research equipment, and innovative programs to ensure children with cancer survive and thrive.

The Sohn Conference Foundation honors the memory of Ira Sohn, a talented Wall Street professional whose life was cut short when he passed away from cancer at the age of 29. In 1995, Ira’s colleagues and friends Douglas Hirsch, Lance Laifer, and Daniel Nir, along with Ira’s mother Judith Sohn and brother Evan, created the Ira Sohn Research Conference, now called The Sohn Investment Conference. It is a leading funder in pediatric cancer research and care, having raised more than $50 million.

The gala is part of Delete Blood Cancer’s mission to raise awareness about the need for bone marrow donors. When you register as a potential bone marrow donor, you submit a cheek swab sample that is tested to determine your tissue type. Every day, thousands of patients search a list of all registered donors hoping to find a donor whose tissue type matches his or her own. Less than 1% of registered donors will ever be a match for a patient.

Delete Blood Cancer started with one family’s search for a bone marrow donor and is today part of the world’s largest bone marrow donor center. It has registered more than 4.2 million potential donors and facilitated more than 41,000 life-saving transplants.

By Winnie McCroy, EDGE Editor