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Couple’s $5-million gift sparks brain tumor research
Although healthy now, Steven Haley knows that his brain tumor could one day grow back. Called a meningioma, the benign but steady-growing tumor can lead to disability—even death. Its cause is unknown.
To help solve this mystery, Haley and his wife established the Steven and Kathleen Haley Meningioma Research Fund with a $5-million gift to BWH last fall. The fund will support the work of Neurosurgery Chairman Peter Black, MD, PhD, who removed Haley’s tumor in 1997.
“As a patient, I felt a sense of urgency in helping Dr. Black find answers,” Steven Haley said.
The couple’s gift will also add fuel to the Peter Black Neurosurgical Fund, which supports research and physician training, and finance renovations to create space for a second Intra-operative Magnetic Resonance Imaging System. Developed by BWH researchers and unveiled in 1994, the system provides real-time images of the body’s interior during surgery, a feat not possible with the conventional MRI. The new system will be largely dedicated to neurosurgical procedures.
The Haleys’ gift to BWH isn’t likely to be their last. They have established the Brain Science Foundation primarily to support Black’s work in research, education, patient care and public awareness related to neurological diseases.
“Our personal gift to Brigham and Women’s jump-started what our foundation will carry on,” Haley said.