Dr. Marnie Rose Foundation exceeds $3M in total donations

The Dr. Marnie Rose Foundation has received more than $3 million in donations to fight brain cancer.

Rose was a pediatric resident at Children's Memorial Hermann Hospital who was diagnosed with glioblastoma multiforme brain cancer. She sought to bring more attention to brain cancer and raise awareness.

She and her family learned that little progress had been made in treating brain cancer, that money was not being raised and that drug companies were not researching treatments for it. Rose passed away in 2002 after which friends and family created the foundation to continue her work to raise money and awareness, according to a foundation press release.

Among the different fundraising programs the foundation hosts is the Run for the Rose, a 5K run/walk that is held each year. The 10th race earned $500,000 and brought total donations to more than $3 million. Each year has seen more survivors attend the race, starting from only one or two in the first years and growing to nearly 80 at the most recent.

Money from the foundation has helped conduct five clinical trials that have helped advance research and therapy that allow individuals with brain tumors to live five to six more years. The trials have also helped to develop new drugs.

"We see brain cancer patients living more than four times as long as Marnie did after she was diagnosed," said Lanie Rose, Marnie's mother and founder of the Dr. Marnie Rose Foundation, in a press release.

For more information on the foundation, visit www.runfortherose.com.