MIAMI (CBSMiami.com) – Broward Hyundai dealers joined with the Hyundai Hope on Wheels program Monday to announce $100 thousand grants to three South Florida pediatric cancer programs, part of 71 grants announced nationwide worth more than $7 million.

Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital in Hollywood was awarded $100 thousand to support and enhance it’s Pediatric Palliative Care program. The goal of palliative care is to relieve suffering and provide the best possible quality of life for people facing the pain, symptoms and stresses of serious illness such as cancer. Unlike treatments intended to cure cancer, palliative care is intended to make a patient more comfortable while they are battling cancer.

Broward Health was awarded a $100 thousand grant to help fuld a program to address the stress and anxiety of hospital visits for children living with cancer,

In Miami, a $100 thousand grant was awarded to the Pediatric Oncology (cancer) program at the University of Miami’s Miller School of Medicine. The goal of the program is to expand some treatment programs to greater numbers of minorities by increasing their representation in bone marrow registries and cord blood banks. The wider the representation, the greater the chance children with cancer will be able to find a match for potentially life-saving treatment.

The Miller School of Medicine will partner with the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center and Holtz Children’s Hospital in the project.

The grants from the Hyundai Hope on Wheels program are part of a $43 million commitment since 1998 to fight children’s cancer, with awards given annually during National Childhood Cancer Awareness month.

The grants will be presented Thursday in two separate ceremonies.

Hyundai Hope on Wheels is a charitable partnership between the automaker and more than 800 dealerships nationwide dedicated to helping childhood victims of cancer through funding research and treatment programs.