The Olivia Boccuzzi Foundation, named for a Brooklyn girl who died of a brain tumor in 2012, has donated $50,000 to the Children’s Brain Tumor Project in support of pediatric brain tumor research. Olivia’s parents, Frank and Enza Boccuzzi, presented the donation to Dr. Mark Souweidane at the 2015 Stomp Out Cancer Marathon in Brooklyn on June 6, hosted by the Dyker Heights Athletic Association.
Olivia was 23 months old when she suddenly began to experience neurological symptoms and was diagnosed with a PNET (Primitive Neuroectodermal Tumor) of the brainstem. She lost her battle less than a year later, shortly before her third birthday.
PNETs develop from immature cells left over as the central nervous system develops during pregnancy — there is no known cause and no way to prevent them. They are one of the tumors being studied by the researchers of the Weill Cornell Children’s Brain Tumor Project, which is primarily supported by families and communities of children and adults diagnosed with rare and inoperable brain tumors.
