Welcome to the TAK Foundation

The primary objective of the TAK Foundation is to provide financial and counseling support to the families of children diagnosed with cancer, especially lymphoma and leukemia. Families incur significant disruptions and challenges in their lives as their child is being diagnosis and treated. Treatments include chemotherapy, radiation and stem cell transplants and can continue for significant periods of time, sometimes for years.

In some cases, the families have to travel far distances for treatment incurring travel related costs and must find affordable housing while their child is being treated. The families may not have adequate insurance and funds to cover their medical and living expenses during these treatments.

The TAK Foundation is there to help!

Thomas Alexander Kowick (TAK) is the 21 year old son of Tom and Julie. Alex was stricken with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in February, 2006 and aggressively battled the disease for 2 1/2 years before succumbing on August 1, 2008. His treatments included chemo and radiation at the Cancer & Blood Disorder Clinic at Prisma Health Children's Hospital in Columbia, SC and two stem cell transplants at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, NC. Through this experience, we saw many families struggle through normal everyday life in need of much help and assistance. As a result, the TAK Foundation was formed.

Since 2008, the TAK Foundation has helped over 600 families with housing and travel expenses disbursing over $325,000 while their child receives medical treatments. 

The TAK Foundation has an ongoing relationship with the Prisma Health Children's Hospital in Columbia, SC where Alex was first diagnosis and treated. The Foundation has also helped families through Levine Children's Hospital in Charlotte, NC, and in 2024, established a relationship with the Duke Pediatric Transplant and Cellular Therapy Program in Durham, NC. We work closely with Duke's Family Support Program and their Clinical Social Workers in assessing the family's financial need and disbursing payments for travel and housing expenses. 

A "thank you" note from a mother sums up how grateful these families are. "Thank you for your generous gift to our family. At a time in our lives when we felt the most helpless, we were blessed in ways that made our hardship manageable and less worrisome. My goal is to one day be able to help a family as you have helped mine! Our son has fully recovered from hepatoblastoma. He is picking up with life as a normal 16 year old. Glory be to God! Thank you again, Michelle."

The TAK Foundation is an approved 501(c)(3) non-profit organized in the state of South Carolina in 2008. Our EIN number is 26-3093258 and our Board of Directors include 5 family members. 

Members of the Board meet periodically and perform on a voluntary basis; there is no paid compensation. 

The Foundation spends all 100% of its donations on the needs of struggling families and coordinates its assessment activities with the social service staffs of our affiliated hospitals. This ensures that the families with the greatest financial needs are helped. 

Specific detail reports of donations and distributions are maintained for accountability and audit purposes while protecting the privacy of the families. Annual reports are filed with the federal and state government agencies.

Alex’s lymphoma was diagnosed while he was still a senior at Spring Valley High School in Columbia, SC.  With the help of the school, he was able to graduate from Spring Valley and was accepted and attended the University  of South Carolina before being forced to withdraw for medical reasons.