Run for the Rose races past $1 million mark for brain tumor research

They're off and running at the seventh annual Run for the Rose, a 5K fun run and walk supporting the Dr. Marnie Rose Foundation. The event raised $317,000 for brain tumor research at MD Anderson. Photo courtesy of Your Sporting Image by Karen Thibodeaux.

Family and friends of the late Marnie Rose, M.D., walked and ran their way to a fundraising milestone March 29 at the seventh annual Run for the Rose, a 5K fun run and walk supporting the Dr. Marnie Rose Foundation. Thanks to a $317,000 contribution from proceeds of the event, the foundation has donated more than $1 million to brain cancer research at MD Anderson.

Diagnosed with brain cancer in 2001 during her first year of medical residency at The University of Texas-Houston Medical School, Rose underwent treatment at MD Anderson. She died in 2002.

Since 2003, the Rose Foundation ensures that her legacy — a passion to help others and a courageous fight with a rare disease — lives on by supporting research and new drug development. Each year donations from the run are divided between MD Anderson and Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital.

“Marnie was beautiful and bright, and as a pediatric medical resident she devoted her life to caring for children,” says Lanie Rose, her mother. “Through the foundation, we honor her by helping both children and brain cancer patients in need. We’re grateful for the support we’ve received from our donors and participants through the years.”

According to the American Cancer Society more than 22,000 people will be diagnosed and nearly 13,000 will die from brain cancer in 2009.

“Brain cancer is not as common and does not receive the same amount of funding as some other cancers,” says Raymond Sawaya, M.D., professor and chair of the Department of Neurosurgery at MD Anderson. “Over the past 10 to 15 years, private donors such as the Dr. Marnie Rose Foundation have changed research funding for this cancer. The foundation and the Rose family have been instrumental in MD Anderson’s role in developing novel therapies for brain cancer.”

All funds raised by the Dr. Marnie Rose Foundation for MD Anderson go directly to groundbreaking research, with guidance from Sawaya and Alfred Yung, M.D., chair of the Department of Neuro-Oncology.

“Marnie received state-of-the-art, compassionate care at MD Anderson that she could not have received anywhere else,” says Lanie. “The Dr. Marnie Rose Foundation was formed from our desire to honor my daughter’s memory and help the next patient survive brain cancer. Marnie never gave up her will to survive, so we will not surrender our hope for a cure.”

View video: Dr. Marnie Rose Foundation Supports Cancer Research – CNL.

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