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The program has contributed more than $1.24 million since its inception to UNC Lineberger’s Comprehensive Cancer Support Program.

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N.C. Cancer Hospital, UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center’s clinical home.

Constellation Brands Beer Division’s “Corona Cares” raised a record $206,821 for UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Comprehensive Cancer Support Program in 2017. The program, since its inception in 2010, has contributed more than $1.24 million on behalf of UNC Lineberger’s patient and family support program.

The “Corona Cares” program is a partnership between Constellation Brands and eight local wholesalers in North Carolina: Long Beverage, Raleigh; Carolina Premium Beverage, Concord; Coastal Beverage Co., Wilmington, Elizabeth City, Farmville and Pollocksville; Healy Wholesale, Fayetteville; R. A. Jeffreys Distributing, New Bern and Fayetteville; R. H. Barringer Distributing, Greensboro; Skyland Distributing, Ashville; and United Beverages of NC, Hickory and Salisbury.

“The support from Constellation Brands and the North Carolina wholesalers makes it possible for us to provide a wide array of services and programs for cancer patients and their families that often are not available elsewhere, and most are not covered by insurance,” said Donald Rosenstein, MD, director of the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Support Program. “These funds come from all over North Carolina and, in turn, are used to serve patients and their families throughout the state.”

This past August, Constellation Brands and the Corona wholesalers across North Carolina contributed 25 cents of every case of Corona Extra and Corona Light sold in the state, and 100 percent of the donations from paper limes purchased at convenience stores, grocery stores, bars and restaurants across North Carolina.

“Every year we set our fundraising goal higher and our consumers in the great state of North Carolina continue to support this grass-roots effort to achieve year-over-year increases for a very worthy cause,” said Bill Marren, market development manager of Constellation Brands Beer Division.

The UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Support Program is based at N.C. Cancer Hospital, UNC Lineberger’s clinical arm. The program offers a wide range of services, from free educational materials for newly diagnosed patients, to individualized support for adolescent and young adult patients facing a cancer diagnosis, to consultations with cancer nutritionists for patients who have trouble eating during treatment, to legal and financial counseling. The program also offers integrative medicine, such as yoga and massage therapy, has a boutique that offers, among other things, wigs and head covers for patients who lose their hair as a result of cancer treatment, gas cards for patients who must drive long distances to get treatment, educational programs, counseling and support groups.

The “Corona Cares” program was created in 2005 by Crown Imports and local wholesalers to benefit pediatric patients and their families at Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago. It has since spread to additional markets and benefits other charities. Crown Imports, Corona’s exclusive U.S. importer, provides all of the necessary program tools to wholesalers including, “Corona Cares” paper limes that are sold in retail accounts, customized pennant strings, and graphics for creating banners and posters.