Eastern Shore Community Health Partners (ESCHP) was formed in June 2008 in response to a preponderance of rare cancers and neurological diseases on the Eastern Shore of Mobile Bay in Alabama.

The Eastern Shore – which includes the burgeoning Baldwin County communities of Spanish Fort, Daphne, Montrose, Fairhope, Marlow, Fish River, Barnwell and Point Clear - in recent years has experienced high rates of rare cancers, including brain and neurological cancers, leukemias and lymphomas, as well as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.

The mission of our nonprofit agency is to protect the health and welfare of Eastern Shore residents by increasing knowledge and awareness of health issues including rare cancers, birth defects and neurological diseases. We aim to assess the scope of these diseases, and seek research into causation and prevention, with an emphasis on how the environment impacts health.

Our organization has worked with public health officials to that end. But to ensureour best chance of success in our quest for answers, we are convinced we must appeal to scientists and researchers from universities to conduct environmental studies.

Formed with the help of Fairhope City Councilwoman Debbie Quinn, ESCHP is comprised of a knowledgeable board of directors that includes scientists, medical doctors, a hospital administrator, an ALS patient advocate, an oncology nurse who survived brain cancer, and other concerned community members.

Lesley Pacey - whose daughter Sarah was part of a confirmed leukemia cluster in the Fairhope area - is founder and director of the organization. Sarah was diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia at age 4 in 2004, has been off treatment and in remission since 2006.

Since Sarah’s diagnosis, Pacey - a Mobile Register reporter - has maintained a word-of-mouth database and maps of rare cancers and neurological diseases on the Eastern Shore dating from 1995 through today. Pacey’s research has garnered the attention of environmental activists, the Alabama Department of Public Health, as well as university researchers from Alabama, Arizona and Nebraska.