In December 2018, the lives of the Pavone family were changed forever.
Laurence Pavone was just 41 years of age when he was diagnosed with an aggressive, inoperable brain tumour – a Glioblastoma Multiforme.
Despite the devastating news, Laurence and his wife Julie turned heartbreak into hope. From his hospital bed, they founded Laurie’s Love, dedicated to raising funds and awareness for brain cancer research.
Laurence passed away just 10 months later, but his legacy of love and giving back lives on. Over the past 5 years, Laurie’s Love has raised over $800,000 to support vital research, including The Brain Cancer Centre.
Laurie’s Love helps support the incredible work happening through The Brain Cancer Centre including in WEHI’s Brain Cancer Research Laboratory.
Co-led by Dr Sarah Best, a fundamental biologist, Dr Saskia Freytag, a bioinformatician, and Dr Jim Whittle, a medical oncologist, who have laser focused their research at the challenges of brain cancer. Using their diverse, multidisciplinary insights, the team is working to tackle the challenges of adult glioma with the aim of finding new treatments for patients with brain cancer.
“The support from Laurie’s Love has been transformative, enabling our lab to think widely about the problems and develop tools and techniques we can share with other researchers to accelerate brain cancer research and generate improved treatments for patients,” said Dr Sarah Best.
Of the research progress achieved so far, Julie Pavone, Laurie’s wife and president of Laurie’s Love, said, “to be able to honour my amazing husband by supporting this research, is the ultimate way to contribute to progress, continue his legacy, and give other families hope – something we did not have available to us.”
Julie’s passion continuing Laurence’s legacy by supporting The Brain Cancer Centre shines through:
“Our beliefs, our hopes, our vision is the same. A world without brain cancer. Together we can make a difference”
