TORONTO – Princess Margaret Hospital received a hefty $50 million donation Monday in what’s being celebrated as the largest-ever private gift to cancer research in Canadian history.
The multi-million-dollar donation will be paid over a decade by a philanthropist couple, Emmanuelle Gattuso and Alan Slaight.
It adds to the hospital’s goal to raise $1 billion over five years to fund personalized cancer care research. It’s a budding initiative in which patients’ genetics are studied to help diagnose cancer and provide individual treatment.
Gattuso herself is a 10-year breast cancer survivor – her sister also fought the disease and her mother succumbed to it.
“I have been touched by cancer, as have so many friends and family members,” she told reporters at a press event announcing the unprecedented gift.
“(The donation) will help us understand cancer at the most advanced level, but most of all, let’s face it, it’s for the patients, who will benefit from these advances and from this research,” she said.
So far, 10 months have passed since the “Believe it” $1 billion initiative was launched and to date, $243 million has been raised through philanthropy and research grants.
Customized cancer care is the new approach officials at Princess Margaret’s Cancer Centre are promising will change the face of cancer treatment across the country via four avenues: detection, diagnosis, targeted treatment and support.
“Personalized cancer medicine will help us detect medicine earlier, diagnose cancers more precisely, offer treatment and especially better support for patients and their families throughout their cancer journey,” Dr. Robert Bell, president and CEO of the University Health Network, told reporters.
The donation will supplement a “superfund” that’ll build and support research teams specializing in advanced tumour biology, immune therapy and molecular imaging.
Last April, the same group of hospital officials told the media of its campaign to raise $1 billion to fund the initiative.
That money would be used to recruit, train and retrain physicians, scientists and other experts in various fields of cancer research. It’ll also upgrade technology and facilities.
The hospital says it’s the largest fundraising campaign in the history of Canadian health care.
To donate to personalized cancer medicine at the Princess Margaret, visit ibelieve.ca.
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