# Einar "Jimmy" Gustafson

Source: https://onco.cc/people/einar-gustafson/  
OnCo record `einar-gustafson` (Person). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

A 12-year-old lymphoma patient of Sidney Farber whose 1948 radio broadcast launched the Jimmy Fund, which has funded Dana-Farber for more than 75 years.

## Summary

Einar Gustafson (1936-2001), a farm boy from New Sweden, Maine, was being treated for lymphoma by Sidney Farber at Children's Hospital Boston when, on 22 May 1948, he was interviewed on the national radio show Truth or Consequences under the pseudonym Jimmy while members of the Boston Braves gathered at his bedside. Listeners sent in more than $200,000 for a television set and for Farber's Children's Cancer Research Foundation, and the Jimmy Fund was born. His identity was kept private for fifty years; he survived his cancer, drove a truck, raised a family, and was reintroduced to the public in 1998. The Jimmy Fund remains the principal charitable arm of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the official charity of the Boston Red Sox.

## Fields

- Kind: Person
- Last checked: 2026-09-09
- Tags: hero; patient
- Role: The boy behind the Jimmy Fund
- Specialisms: Paediatric lymphoma; Cancer fundraising; Childhood cancer

## Sources

- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einar_Gustafson
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einar_Gustafson
- The Jimmy Fund: https://www.jimmyfund.org/

## Connected records

- institutions: [Dana-Farber Brigham Cancer Center](https://onco.cc/institutions/dana-farber/), [The Jimmy Fund](https://onco.cc/institutions/jimmy-fund/)
- people: [Sidney Farber](https://onco.cc/people/sidney-farber/), [Ted Williams](https://onco.cc/people/ted-williams/)
- bottlenecks: [Funding follows fashion, not burden](https://onco.cc/bottlenecks/b-funding-allocation/), [Rare and paediatric cancers without markets](https://onco.cc/bottlenecks/b-rare-cancers/)

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JSON: https://onco.cc/api/v1/entities/einar-gustafson.json