Cristian Rivera Foundation is happy to announce that Committee Member and former New York Knicks All-Star Anthony Mason recently donated $15,000 to the foundation to help find a cure for rare pediatric brain stem tumor DIPG. Mason, who named the Cristian Rivera Foundation his official charity, made the generous donation in return for promotional appearances he made on behalf of Steiner Sports.
“Being on the Cristian Rivera Foundation Committee means a lot to me,” Mason said in a statement. “I know what it’s like with my own kids and though you can never know what it’s like for someone to lose a child, I can only imagine since I know how I feel when my kids only get hurt. I want people to get involved and start doing the research to cure this disease because we as parents should not have to bury our children.”
Mason’s $15,000 donation is helping to fund a promising clinical trial that started in May 2012 at Memorial Sloan Kettering and Weill Cornell Medical Center. Dr. Mark Souweidane, the doctor spearheading the trial, is using convection-enhanced delivery for the first time to administer radio immunotherapy to children with an otherwise incurable tumor. Since May 2012, Dr. Souweidane has operated on two young children with DIPG tumors that, until now, had been considered inoperable. Both patients are continuing to do well after surgery and Mason’s donation will go a long way toward ultimately curing this deadly disease.
