How We Met Laura
We met Laura around 2015, and the connection was instant. She had a magnetic energy — equal parts warmth, wit, and an unmistakable love for her cats Ratso and PeeWee. Laura was brilliant. She had a sharp mind for research, a deep appreciation for technology, and a dry sense of humor that could make anyone laugh. She loved fine wine, gardening, the arts, and a good debate. She was an avid reader, a relentless fact-checker, and she was generous to a fault.
When we first got to know her, Laura had recently lost her husband Jerry — Command Sergeant Major Jerome W. Farmer, U.S. Army — to cancer. Jerry was a decorated veteran and a larger-than-life personality whose own obituary asked that everyone either become an organ donor or “register to donate your body to the Humanities Gift Registry.” Losing him was devastating, but Laura carried on with the same resilience that defined her entire life. She had already faced her own battle with ovarian cancer and was in remission. She had won that fight.
But cancer is rarely finished when it leaves. It came back, and it came back aggressively. Laura threw herself into researching clinical trials and experimental treatments with the same tenacity she brought to everything — scouring databases, calling research centers, and refusing to stop looking for the next option. That determination is what inspired this website.
Laura’s Fight
Laura grew up in McKees Rocks and Carnegie, PA. She graduated from Sto-Rox High School, earned her LPN license, and went on to graduate Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Information Technology. She served 26 years in the United States Army, achieving the rank of Sergeant First Class. She held positions as a Practical Nurse and Medical Specialist and was especially proud of her FEMA deployment during Hurricane Katrina. After the military, she built a career in IT at PENNDOT and was a licensed real estate agent with a passion for design and construction. Laura could do anything she set her mind to.
When ovarian cancer returned, the doctors and cancer care team at Allegheny Health Network (AHN) in Pittsburgh became her lifeline. They kept her alive for years through treatment, care, and clinical intervention. AHN gave Laura more time — more holidays, more dinners, more moments with the people who loved her. We will always be grateful for that.
As her options narrowed, Laura’s instincts as a researcher kicked in. She understood that for many cancer patients, a clinical trial isn’t just a study — it’s a lifeline. Finding the right one can be overwhelming, and Laura spent countless hours searching when she should have been resting. That struggle is exactly why this site exists.
Who We Are
We’re Harry Caskey and Brian Coulter. Laura was one of our close friends, and we built this website in her honor — to help others navigating the same fight she faced. We both work in tech, and this felt like the most meaningful thing we could build.
We’re not a nonprofit or a medical institution — we’re two people who loved someone and wanted to turn that love into something useful. Laura would have appreciated the technical challenge of building a clinical trial search engine. She probably would have critiqued the font choices. She definitely would have found a typo.
Our mission is simple: make it easier for cancer patients, caregivers, and families to find clinical trials, resources, and support organizations — so no one has to spend the hours Laura did searching for their next option.
Laura’s Search connects visitors to over 500,000 studies on ClinicalTrials.gov, the National Cancer Institute (NCI), and a curated collection of cancer research and patient support organizations. Every resource on this site was chosen with care, because Laura would have accepted nothing less.
In Her Memory
Laura Anne Keppel passed away on March 23rd, 2020, at her home in Collier Township, surrounded by the people who loved her. She was 57 years old. She fought ovarian cancer with everything she had — and she fought it longer than anyone expected.
Laura was preceded in death by her husband Jerry. She is survived by her sister Lorraine, her best friend Nancy, her beloved Ratso and PeeWee, and more friends and family than most people are lucky enough to have in a lifetime.
She left behind a legacy of strength, curiosity, and an unwavering belief that knowledge is power — especially when you’re fighting for your life.
This website is for Laura. And it’s for everyone still searching.