Stories of Giving

While a devastating diagnosis, the outlook for Duchenne muscular dystrophy—including quality of life and hope for a cure—has improved dramatically over the last two decades, thanks in large part to fierce advocacy and philanthropy from the patient community. 

Melissa Harris and John Harris, MD, PhD'05, have endowed a scholarship at UMass Chan Medical School to bring more opportunity to aspiring physicians. Established in both of their names, it honors the couple’s shared life, a joint dedication to John’s prolific career as a dermatologist and physician-scientist, and their belief that a student’s financial situation should never prevent them from pursuing a medical degree. 

For Mark Eastham, MD'82, the course to a fulfilling medical career took a somewhat unusual route. It was first set on a summer day in the waters off Cape Cod, after a preliminary stop at the Hyannis Port estate of a rather well-known Massachusetts family. Many years later, the Lowell native is funding a scholarship at UMass Chan Medical School to help aspiring physicians launch their own careers in medicine.

Inspired by Dennis Murphy III’s remarkable recovery from a stroke, Dennis’ mother, Julie Murphy, has established a fund named in memory of her husband and Dennis’ father, Dennis F. Murphy Jr., to advance stroke rehabilitation education at UMass Chan Medical School.

A gift from the Hall family, including Kimberly Hall, FNP, DNP’19, her husband Bruce Hall, and their children, will make international clinical nursing experiences more accessible to students at the Tan Chingfen Graduate School of Nursing through the establishment of the Hall Family Global Nursing Fund.

More than 2,000 participants descended on Polar Park in Worcester for the 26th annual UMass Cancer Walk presented by Harr Toyota on Sunday, Sept. 29. This year, more than $650,000 was raised.

On Thursday, Sept. 12, the 2024 Convocation and Investiture ceremony celebrated the achievement of faculty at UMass Chan Medical School—“the heart and soul of this academic institution”—and the donors who support them. 

A longtime leader in emergency medicine, David E. Wilcox, MD, FACEP, is funding a new award that will support research in the specialty at UMass Chan Medical School, where he was a valued faculty member for more than 15 years.

A commitment to fighting ALS is a common thread that unites the Cellucci Fund marathon team in a profound way. This year’s team raised more than $105,000, exceeding their goal and bringing critical funding to ALS and related research at UMass Chan and in the lab of Robert H. Brown Jr., DPhil, MD, the Donna M. and Robert J. Manning Chair in Neurosciences and professor of neurology. 

When Jürgen Holleck, MD’99, R’02, and Walter Mutter, MD’99, returned to the UMass Chan campus for Reunion 2024 in May, for old times’ sake, they visited the Student Lounge, where they used to play ping pong to unwind after long days of studying.