Women to Watch: Rubin Fortunato Celebrates Inspiring Women Leaders — Jaclyn Radcliffe

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March 10, 2025

During Women’s History Month, Rubin Fortunato celebrates contemporary women leaders who are making a positive difference in our world. Today, Rubin Fortunato highlights Jaclyn (Jackie) Radcliffe, who – after losing her three-year-old daughter, Charlotte (Charley), to pediatric brain cancer – founded the Charlotte Grace Fund. The Fund benefits the families of children who are battling pediatric cancers by providing financial assistance to cover basic needs so families can focus on the needs of their ill children.

The inspiration behind the Charlotte Grace Fund is not an easy story.

Charley was diagnosed with medullablastoma, a malignant form of childhood brain cancer, when she was only a few weeks old. Over her three-year fight with the disease, she underwent brain surgery to remove the tumor, as well as several rounds of induction chemotherapy, three stem cell transplants, and an additional three rounds of high dose chemotherapy. Charley spent the first year of her life on the oncology floor of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) for cancer treatment. Unfortunately, Charley’s illness and the associated treatments left her vulnerable to multiple infections, leading to frequent hospitalizations at CHOP. In August 2016, she was diagnosed with Interstitial Lung Disease, which led to an eight-month-long hospitalization in CHOP’s Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, where she awaited bilateral lung transplants. Unfortunately, a donor was not found and Charley died on April 6, 2017.

Throughout Charley’s inpatient treatments, Jackie and her husband, B.J., never left Charley’s side. Jackie left a job she loved to care for Charley. B.J.’s parents took care of their young son, Logan, while B.J. worked during the week to keep the family’s benefits and spent time with Charley on weekends, allowing Jackie to spend time with Logan on the weekends. As Jackie notes, “Cancer fractures families.”

Throughout Charley’s in-patient hospital stays, Jackie and B.J. learned first-hand about the great financial stress parents of critically-ill children face, as they lost their own home during Charley’s illness. The costs that these families face are nearly endless and come at the most difficult time imaginable. Through their experience juggling work, Charley’s needs at the hospital, and caring for their son, Logan, Jackie and B.J. realized that it is nearly impossible for many families to stay together under these difficult circumstances.

As a result of her family’s experience with pediatric cancer, Jackie became an advocate for childhood cancers. She harnessed the power of her 4,500 Facebook followers to raise awareness of the disease, encouraging them to “Go Gold” in September for Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, and she posted facts about childhood cancer and its lack of research funding each month. Jackie led book drives and gift card drives, sending hundreds of books and thousands of dollars in gift cards to CHOP to brighten the inpatient families’ stays. She also raised more than $1,850 for the Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation. Jackie organized an ice hockey “face-off” against cancer that raised over $17,000 for research.

But Jackie and B.J. didn’t stop there. In Charley’s memory and in an effort to help other families of children facing catastrophic medical illnesses stay together, they founded the Charlotte Grace Fund in 2018. The Fund provides financial assistance to families of children who are fighting pediatric cancers in the form of grants to offset the costs associated with transportation, parking, lodging, and living expenses. The Fund has raised over $250,000 since 2019.

The Charlotte Grace Fund amplified its impact by joining forces with the HEADstrong Foundation, a non-profit organization committed to providing essential services to improve the lives of people affected by cancer. Nick Colleulori, a twenty-one-year-old college student who died after a diagnosis of B-Cell non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, founded the organization during his illness.

The Charlotte Grace Fund supports families by delivering comfort kits to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, organizing charity events to raise funds for families, and hosting the Annual Charlotte Grace Fund 5K and Walk. The 6th Annual 5K is coming up on April 5th. Click here for details to sign up or support the Run, which is held at Charley’s favorite park in West Chester, PA.

While Jackie’s work with the Charlotte Grace Fund and the HEADstrong Foundation is more than admirable, she also continues to provide inspiration through her work as a health teacher at Great Valley High School. Jackie continues to inspire others by serving as an example of true grace in the face of extreme difficulty.

We are grateful for the many ways Jackie, the Charlotte Grace Fund, and the HEADstrong Foundation have served as a light to so many families facing the dark times that cancer can bring. As Jackie reminded Great Valley’s Class of 2018 of the lessons she learned during her difficult experience: “Choose happy, choose positivity, and choose to rise. Sometimes life is messy, sometimes it’s cruel and incredibly unfair, but often it’s beautiful.”

Special Thanks to our Office Administrator, Brooke Palma, for authoring this article.