Garine Lapoyan
LOS ANGELES—The Ewing’s Sarcoma Research Foundation (ESRF) has donated $5,000 to the Armenian Bone Marrow Donor Registry (ABMDR) in honor of the late Garine (Gareen) Lapoyan.
“My colleagues and I are deeply moved by the support of the ESRF Board,” said Dr. Frieda Jordan, president of ABMDR, and continued, “We admire ESRF for not only supporting scientific research toward the goal of finding a cure for Ewing’s Sarcoma, but also its ongoing efforts to raise public awareness and honor the memory of a beautiful young woman, Garine Lapoyan, whose life was tragically cut short by the disease.”
Garine was diagnosed with Ewing’s Sarcoma, a primary bone cancer that affects 1% of children and adolescents, at the age of 16 and lost her battle with the disease on August 1st, 2012, at the young age of 24. Prior to her death, in 2010, she started the Ewing’s Sarcoma Research Foundation with her father, Varoujan Lapoyan, with hopes of finding a cure. Garine’s goal with the foundation was to turn her negative experience with cancer into a positive one. Her mission was to raise money through ESRF to support research labs with the aim of finding new treatments for this disease. It had been Garine’s hope and drive to live each day with the possibility of finding a cure. She organized fundraisers and met with Hollywood stars in order to familiarize the public with this terrible disease and stress the importance of funding the research for a cure.
After Garine’s passing, her close friends and family actively pursued carrying her name and legacy, and in 2014 and 2015, ESRF funded a $40,000/year fellowship which was awarded to the most deserving MD or PhD candidate who dedicated their research to Ewing’s Sarcoma. Dr. Arun Singh of UCLA was the recipient of this fellowship for both years. Additionally, in 2015, Garine’s cousin, Gio Maljian, climbed Mount Ararat in her memory. In his words, the climb served the purpose of “Remembering her, her struggle, and her irrepressible passion for life.”
May Garine’s spirit and zest for life live longer in all of us.
Source: Asbarez
Link: ESRF Donates ,000 to ABMDR in Honor of Garine Lapoyan
