Joe Andruzzi Foundation and National Grid Launch Annual "Points for Patients" Campaign, Engaging New England Football Fans in the Fight to Tackle Cancer

The Joe Andruzzi Foundation today announced the launch of its annual “Points for Patients” fundraising campaign to tackle cancer’s impact, in partnership with presenting sponsor National Grid. Now through the end of the NFL regular season, all Joe Andruzzi Foundation supporters who donate to “Points for Patients” will be automatically entered for a chance to win coveted weekly football related prizes, including New England home game tickets. National Grid will also match every donation, dollar for dollar, up to $25,000.

The Joe Andruzzi Foundation is committed to providing help, hope, and a reason to smile for cancer patients and their families by contributing financial and emotional support when it is needed most. The “Points for Patients” campaign directly supports the Foundation’s financial assistance program, through which the Foundation provides grants that help patient families with everyday expenses, including rent and mortgage payments, utility bills, and more.

Weekly prizes for donors who support “Points for Patients” include two tickets to a selection of New England home games, football memorabilia autographed by current NFL players and alumni, and once-in-a-lifetime football experiences, such as a skills clinic with Joe Andruzzi, former New England Patriot offensive guard and cancer survivor. For a chance to win, donors should text the word POINTS to 41444, or visit this link: https://app.mobilecause.com/public/campaigns_keywords/13692/donations/new.

“Every year, the ‘Points for Patients’ campaign allows us to harness our love of football to ensure we continue to pay it forward and tackle cancer’s impact by raising funds to support patients,” said Joe Andruzzi, three-time Super Bowl Champion who co-founded the Foundation with his wife Jen after recovering from non-Hodgkin’s Burkitt’s lymphoma. “Our patient families are not only financially impacted by our supporters’ generosity, but they’re also an active part of the campaign, because National Grid will send six patient families to six New England home games. We are incredibly grateful to National Grid for once again making this commitment to our Foundation.”
Waltham, Mass.-based energy provider National Grid prides itself on providing vital energy to millions of customers across the northeastern U.S. in an efficient, reliable and safe manner. It is also committed to building strong and lasting partnerships with business and community leaders, customers, elected officials and nonprofits, and it contributes millions of dollars every year to a wide variety of deserving programs, most notably in energy, education and the environment.

“We are deeply committed to our New England community and strive to get involved and give back any way we can. The Joe Andruzzi Foundation provides life-changing support to cancer patients and their families, and we are honored to team up with them again for this year’s ‘Points for Patients’ campaign,” said Marcy Reed, president of National Grid in Massachusetts. “We encourage our employees and all fans to pay it forward by building on the excitement of the football season to give back to those who need it most.”

Both National Grid and the Joe Andruzzi Foundation will keep supporters up-to-date on money raised through their websites, Facebook pages and Twitter feeds, and through the mobile giving platform MobileCause.

To learn more about the Joe Andruzzi Foundation and “Points for Patients,” please visit the Foundation website or follow them on Facebook and Twitter. To learn more about National Grid, visit their website or follow them on Facebook and Twitter.

About The Joe Andruzzi Foundation
The Joe Andruzzi Foundation was founded in 2008 to help cancer patients and their families make critical mortgage, rent and utility payments during financially-challenging times, and to fund pediatric brain cancer research. It also provides patients with social and emotional support and acts as a general resource for families. Joe Andruzzi, a former offensive guard with the New England Patriots, was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s Burkitt’s lymphoma in 2007 and was treated at Boston’s Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Disease-free less than a year later, Joe dedicated his life to supporting other cancer patients and funding life-saving research. The Joe Andruzzi Foundation is Joe and his wife Jen’s second philanthropic effort; in 2003, they started the C.J. Buckley Brain Cancer Research Fund at Children’s Hospital Boston in memory of C.J. Buckley, a young man with an inoperable brain tumor who touched their hearts before losing his battle in 2002. The fund supports much-needed, innovative research into the molecular nature of pediatric brain tumors, novel treatment therapies and alternatives to multiple surgeries. The aim is to contribute to the growing knowledge base of available brain cancer cures, making treatment more widely available to all.

About National Grid
National Grid (LSE: NG; NYSE:NGG) is an electricity and gas company that connects consumers to energy sources through its networks. The company is at the heart of one of the greatest challenges facing our society - to create new, sustainable energy solutions for the future and develop an energy system that underpins economic prosperity in the 21st century. National Grid holds a vital position at the center of the energy system and it ‘joins everything up’.

In the northeast U.S., we connect more than seven million gas and electric customers to vital energy sources, essential for our modern lifestyles. In Great Britain, we run the gas and electricity systems that our society is built on, delivering gas and electricity across the country.

National Grid delivers electricity to approximately 3.3 million customers in Massachusetts, New York and Rhode Island. It is the largest distributor of natural gas in northeastern U.S., serving approximately 3.4 million customers in New York, Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

For more information please visit our website: www.nationalgridus.com.