Mario Lemieux Foundation

Ms. Lemieux expanded the foundation's scope in 2000 when she created austin's playrooms following a personal experience while caring for her premature infant son at magee-women's hospital. As she and mr. Lemieux were tending to their son, there was no place to provide a comfortable calming environment and engage his siblings. It was then that ms. Lemieux devised this idea to someday raise funds for playrooms at area hospitals. Since inception, 44 playrooms have been established, with several more planned. In this fiscal year, one playroom was opened at upmc harrisburg. To date, more than 1.5 million families have benefitted from austin's playrooms.

The foundation also supports blood cancer research in both the clinic and lab. In 2014, the foundation established the mario lemieux lymphoma center for children and young adults at children's hospital of pittsburgh of upmc. This center, the first of its kind, treats patients with difficult-to-treat and rare childhood lymphomas. The center has increased access to care and cutting-edge treatments for all childhood lymphomas, while also bringing together a critical volume of patients with rare lymphomas for research studies to create a global impact on care. **continued on schedule o**the foundation also supports hodgkin's disease research and patient care by providing funding to the mario lemieux center for blood cancers, located at the upmc hillman cancer center. In november 2018, the mario lemieux foundation pledged additional support to the upmc hillman cancer center with a five million dollar gift for groundbreaking immunotherapy research and treatment. The mario lemieux immunotherapy center has expanded and enhanced innovative immunotherapy treatments for patients with certain types of solid tumors through research and personalized patient care. It delivers the same level of innovative patient care for solid tumors as the lemieux center for blood cancers at upmc hillman affords blood cancer patients.on october 4, 2022 the board committed five million dollars to upmc children's hospital of pittsburgh to establish the mario lemieux institute for pediatric cancer research. The opening was held in october 2023. The institute focuses on supporting future research leaders who will help generate new scientific breakthroughs and cutting-edge clinical trials in pediatric cancer research and translate that research directly to patients.

In august 2022, the mario lemieux foundation made a five million dollar gift to upmc children's hospital of pittsburgh to establish the mario lemieux institute for pediatric cancer research. Opening in october 2023, the new institute focuses on supporting future research leaders who will help generate new scientific breakthroughs and cutting-edge clinical trials in pediatric cancer research and translate that research directly to the patient. Since opening, the institute has made great strides advancing research programs to improve long-term outcomes for childhood cancer patients.