About Us

Our Mission

Our mission is to help children with sickle cell focus more on life, not pain – and to heighten awareness as it relates to sickle cell disease while bringing our sickle cell communities together.

About Us

A child suffering from chronic pain is a heart-wrenching site.  Prescribed drugs such as Oxycontin, Morphine, and Methadone are just some of the types of medications in the medicine cabinets of children as young as 12 years old. These children face life threatening issues like; Heart disease, stroke, blindness, severe pain, and eventually untimely death; the life expectancy is 23-43 years of age. They suffer pain episodes, which can last 3-7 days at a time, only to start up again soon after the aches and pains from the last episode have ended. Sickle cell children eventually begin to allow the stress of the pain to attack their will to thrive, faith in a cure, hopes of survival, and eventually they fall into depression.

Quest To Cure Sickle Cell Foundation is based in Phoenix, AZ and is a non-profit 501(c) 3 organization purposed to help children with Sickle Cell Disease focus more on life not pain – weather that means through after school or summer activities, hospital visits, resources for home care providers, support groups or home schooling for ones who cant go to school due to sickle cell related problems. Our goal is to tackle it head-on, our purpose is on going and our need is ever present. As long as babies continue to be born with sickle cell disease and sickle cell trait, there will be a need for our services. Until there’s a cure, we will continue to serve.

About Our Founder

Quest to Cure Sickle Cell Foundation was founded by Kristine Buchanan, a young lady who has five young children whom two of them, a set of identical twin boys having the most sever form of sickle cell Disease. The organization was created as a parent to parent support group designed to teach and promote self advocacy which in turn would build a stronger inclusive sickle cell community. The founder and Executive Director Kristine Buchanan believe strongly the quote "Be the change that you want to see in the world". By Mohandas Gandhi.

Gandhi's quote regarding being the change became Kristine's motto in 2003 when she moved to Arizona from a state that assisted the sickle cell community with numerous programs and services. She spent most of her mornings searching via internet and endless phone calls looking for hematologist, support groups, and sickle cell clinics that assisted with the health care of individuals that suffered from sickle cell disease to no avail. Kristine then decided to become the change that she wanted to see for the sickle cell community in Arizona.

Since 2003, Kristine has been operating Quest to Cure with a mission to "Help Children Focus on Life not Pain through unrivaled programs and services like; the Summer Road Camp, Bedside Buddy, and School Success.

Catalogs of Progress

1. 2003: Parent to Parent Support Group
2. 2004: Conception of Quest to Cure sickle Cell Foundation
3. 2005: Quest to Cure Sickle Cell Foundation obtained their 501@3 Status
4. 2006: Conducted the first Quest to Cure Summer Road Camp; we took 35 children and 8 chaperones to California where they enjoyed a free summer vacation to Disney Land, California Big Adventure, and an end of trip beach party where we basked in the sun, built sand castles, and played in the water until the sun went down.
5. 2007: Successfully conducted the 2nd Annual Summer Road Camp; this year, through the financial dedication from Dave Kingston from Kingston Corporation, Quest to Cure was able to take 50 campers. We attended Six Flags Magic Mountain, Universal Studio's and of course, the end of the trip beach party. As always, we discuss life issues like pain coping techniques, and sickle cell awareness. The children had a lot of fun and learned a lot. Our fundraiser for the year was called Art from the Heart, where we auctioned off unique pieced of art that was created by hospitalize children who suffer from sickle cell disease.
6. 2008: This year was land mark for the sickle cell community in Phoenix Arizona. Quest to Cure joined forces with Banner Good Samaritan and conducted its first in house Sickle Cell Task Force. The Task Force met once a month to talk about the medical, mental, and Personal needs of the sickle cell community. Our goal was to create an inclusive awareness tool that could be used to identify the individual needs of the sickle cell sufferer when visiting the emergency department and when admitted into the hospital. Quest to Cure also conducted Arizona's first Sickle Cell Walk a thon.
7. The Purpose of the Life Without Pain Walk a thon was to assist with bringing forth awareness, while raising fund to continue the much needed programs and services. The walk a thon generated $11,000 in funding and drew over 250 walk participants.