Hyundai's "Hope on Wheels" provides UPMC Children's Hospital to help fund pediatric cancer research
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - UPMC Children's Hospital was the recipient of a huge donation this week.
Hyundai's "Hope on Wheels" and Pittsburgh area Hyundai dealers donated half a million dollars to children's hospital.
Most of the money will be used for a grant for pediatric cancer research.
The Lemieux Institute for Pediatric Cancer Research will also get some financial help.
"Only about four-percent of cancer research funding is actually allocated towards pediatric cancer," said Harrison Brown, a cancer survivor who was treated at UPMC Children's as a teenager. "This is despite the fact that every 36 minutes a child is diagnosed with this disease."
Brown spoke at the event and he was back in the spot where he overcame cancer as well as interned.
He now is preparing to head off to medical school and become a doctor.
At the ceremony, the young patients battling cancer also had a chance to place their hands in paint and then leave their very own personal make on a car.
Organizers said that each handprint is meant to represent each child's personal triumph.
Since 2004, UPMC Children's has received just under $4 million from Hyundai's Hope on Wheels.
