Western University is getting a multi-million dollar funding boost for epilepsy research from one of its own.
Chancellor Jack Cowin and his wife Sharon decided to donate $2.5 million to the university in honour of their granddaughter Sophie, who was diagnosed with epilepsy when she was nine years old.
After years of seeking answers from experts at medical centres across North America, Sophie finally received the treatment she needed at Western’s Epilepsy Program.
“Her mother, Katherine, took her to every expert imaginable, and the treatment and the understanding that she got at Western was superior to any place, and anyone else, that she’d talked to in her vast research on this particular problem,” said Cowin. “We wanted to make a donation to foster, encourage and enhance the excellence that had clearly already been established in epilepsy research at Western.”
The money will be used to create the Jack Cowin Chair in Epilepsy Research, which will strengthen collaboration between researchers at Western’s Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry and Robarts Research Institute, and clinicians at the university’s partner academic teaching hospitals.
Western has also decided to match the Cowin's donation, dollar-for-dollar, making the total endowment fund for the chair $5 million.
Dr. Jorge Burneo has been tapped to assume the role of chair. He is a professor in clinical neurological sciences, and epidemiology and biostatistics at Schulich, and co-director of the university's epilepsy program.
“The creation of this research chair in epilepsy at Western will help attract more individuals to work here in London, and allow us to enhance the research and allow us to build partnerships to enhance our clinical care for patients,” said Burneo.
It is hoped the new collaborations will help to develop better surgical outcomes, and less invasive surgical approaches, to give more epilepsy patients a renewed quality of life.
Epilepsy is a common brain disorder characterized by recurrent seizures. It affects one in every 100 Canadians, 30 per cent of whom do not respond to medication.
London's epilepsy program is the largest in the county, performing the largest number of surgeries. It attracts medical professionals from around the world, including the Middle East, Europe and Asia.
