The “Hopp Children's Cancer Center Heidelberg” (KiTZ) is a joint institution of the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg University Hospital (UKHD) and Heidelberg University (Uni HD).
Around 350 flower stores, garden centers and nurseries throughout Germany took part in the campaign "Give flowers. Spread hope.” from April 28 - May 24, 2025, and donated the proceeds from their floral creations. The campaign was once again supported by the Fachverband Deutscher Floristen e.V./FDF and Fleurop AG, which even dedicated a “charity bouquet” to the campaign.
“We are celebrating the fifth anniversary of the campaign this year. We are incredibly grateful that our many supporters make this beautiful, life-affirming campaign literally blossom every year,” says Frederike Scheurer, campaign coordinator at KiTZ Fundraising. “Once again this year, the commitment was overwhelming! A huge thank you to everyone who is committed to modern treatment for children with cancer with this campaign!"
On the KiTZ's Instagram channels, the numerous supporters also shared what moves them about the topic of “childhood cancer” and why they have been supporting the campaign for years. Celebrity supporters of the campaign, which celebrated its fifth anniversary this year, included TV presenter Dr. Johannes Wimmer and actress and voice actress Anja Kling, who have been ambassadors for KiTZ for years.
This resulted in a total donation of 122,553 euros, which will now benefit a very specific research project from the “EU CAN KIDS” alliance. In “EU CAN KIDS”, KiTZ cooperates with two of the most important children's cancer centers in Europe, the Prinses Máxima Centrum in Utrecht and the French Institut Curie in Paris, to create better conditions for children with cancer in Europe and to initiate promising new research projects in children's oncology.
The fundraising campaign is now enabling the start of a new project to develop new immunotherapies for certain forms of blood cancer in children and adolescents. Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a particularly aggressive form of childhood blood cancer. In more than one in four affected children, current therapies do not work in the long term. Targeted immunotherapies, which are already successful in other forms of leukemia, have so far only shown limited clinical success. The funded cooperation project between the centers will now investigate how leukemia cells manage to work together with healthy cells in the bone marrow and evade control by the immune system. The aim is to develop approaches with which the therapeutic effect of immune cells against leukemia can be unleashed again.
“This project is financed entirely by donations and would not be possible without the financial support of committed people,” says research group leader Christian Seitz from KiTZ and Heidelberg University Hospital (UKHD). “The campaign shows that together we can accelerate research and therapy development for children and young people with cancer. Many thanks to all our supporters and the trust they have placed in our work!”
Since the campaign was launched in 2021, around 490,000 euros have been raised for children's cancer research. Anyone who would still like to support this year's campaign can still order the Fleurop Charity Bouquet until June 30. Part of the proceeds will go to “Give flowers. Spread hope."
