ST. CLAIRSVILLE — Belmont County native Robert Makofsky started his art project Sketches For Cancer Research to help raise money to try and find a cure.

Twelve years ago, Makofsky was diagnosed with lymphoma and bladder cancer. From September 2012 through October 2018, he was a patient at the Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital in Columbus. After recovering from lymphoma and bladder cancer, he started having pains in his throat. That led him to schedule an appointment for a biopsy at Trinity Health System in Steubenville. The biopsy determined that Makofsky had throat cancer.

After the third cancer diagnosis, Makosfsky started trying to figure out why he kept getting cancer.

“I never smoked, never drank or did drugs but keep getting cancer. So what can I do to help?” he said. “I had all these sketches and have always loved to draw since I was a kid.”

While he was at the James Cancer Hospital, his daughter brought him sketch pads, pencils, erasers and other supplies needed to draw.

“So I took 20 of my latest pictures, and I decided to sell them,” Makofsky said while recalling how the Sketches for Cancer Research project started.

Each sketch is framed and priced at $20. Of that amount, $10 from every sketch sold goes to the Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute. Another $9 out of the $20 goes to buying the materials needed to make the pictures, which leaves Makofsky with $1 per picture. He said that money goes to making business cards for the Sketches for Cancer Research project.

“Sketches For Cancer Research, I originally had it for cancer treatments but I decided I wanted to go one step further. I wanted to put an end to this once and for all,” Makofsky said.

The framed Sketches for Cancer Research drawings will be available from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. every Monday and Tuesday at Print N Copy, 104 N. Marietta St. in St. Clairsville.