Jim Valvano

The Courage to Never, Ever Give Up

Ultimately, Valvano’s exhortation matured into concrete help. The V Foundation for Cancer Research reports awarding more than $310 million in grants, with 100% of direct donations to research supported by an endowment (v.org). That financial architecture embodies his promise: words backed by action, action backed by results. So when we hear, “Don’t give up. Don’t ever give up,” we are not being asked to admire bravery from afar; we are being invited to join a lineage of determined helpers—people who transform endurance into treatments, and treatments into time. [...]