{"id":221845,"date":"2026-04-07T11:19:23","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T11:19:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/221845\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T11:19:23","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T11:19:23","slug":"south-florida-couple-donates-millions-to-ensure-children-have-access-to-cancer-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/221845\/","title":{"rendered":"South Florida couple donates millions to ensure children have access to cancer care"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was a transformative moment for Nicklaus Children’s Hospital<\/a> in Miami<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Helen and Jacob Shaham donated $15 million, and the Cancer & Blood Disorders Institute now bears their name.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For them, it was personal \u2013 Jacob Shaham lost his twin brother to the disease, and another family member was saved by the hospital.<\/p>\n

“She always was talking wonderfully about the hospital,” said Helen Shaham.<\/p>\n

“We really care, we really care, this is the reason we are so close to this industry,” said Jacob Shaham.<\/p>\n

The Shahams moved to Miami 46 years ago from Israel<\/a> with $38,000 \u2013 no family, no friends. They purchased a small facility in Opa-locka and hired three employees to start The Palace Group<\/a>, providing quality senior care.<\/p>\n

“Twenty years, working 20 hours a day, 7 days a week,” said Jacob Shaham.<\/p>\n

From humble beginnings, The Palace Group has grown to an empire with four locations, 10 communities, and about 2,000 employees.<\/p>\n

For the Shahams, residents and staff are an extension of family.<\/p>\n

“We hug and kiss the residents, the families all the time,” said Helen Shaham.<\/p>\n

On this day at the Helen & Jacob Shaham Cancer & Blood Disorders Institute<\/a>, they met 16-year-old Sabrina Soto, who is battling a rare liver cancer<\/a>, one of only seven cases in the U.S. After four months of treatment, doctors say she’s on her way to a full recovery and looking forward to what’s next.<\/p>\n

“I really want to ring my bell, and I also want to get into the pool because I can’t with this,” said Sabrina Soto,<\/p>\n

“When people get out of it, or they are finishing treatment, this is a gift that you cannot buy. It’s worth everything,” said Jacob Shaham.<\/p>\n

For more than 46 years, the Shahams have dedicated their lives to caring for the elderly and now they’re investing in life-saving treatment for Florida<\/a>‘s youngest residents.<\/p>\n

At Nicklaus Children’s Hospital, about 90% of children are on Medicaid<\/a> with no insurance. Each year, nearly 16,000 kids in the U.S., hundreds in Florida, are diagnosed with cancer.<\/p>\n

But thanks to donors like the Shahams, they now have access to life-saving care close to home.<\/p>\n

In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was a transformative moment for Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Miami. Helen and Jacob Shaham donated $15 million,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":221846,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1158,28,571,13120,123,125,124,1064,807],"class_list":{"0":"post-221845","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-miami","8":"tag-cancer","9":"tag-florida","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-medicaid","12":"tag-miami","13":"tag-miami-headlines","14":"tag-miami-news","15":"tag-miami-dade","16":"tag-south-florida"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221845"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221845\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/221846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}