Wilson Sporting Goods Co. has donated a record $250,000 to the The Breast Cancer Research Foundation in the fight against breast cancer. When the partnership began in 1998, Wilson decided to donate a portion of the proceeds from the sales of all its womens sporting goods products to the Foundation annually.
In 2004, Wilson expanded the partnership by making the annual donation based on the sales of all Wilson products and raised awareness about BCRF by launching Hope, a line of sporting goods equipment created exclusively for women. Wilson is the Official Sporting Goods Equipment Sponsor of BCRF and to date has donated nearly $1.5 million dollars to the Foundation.
In keeping with Wilsons goal of supporting clinical research that will lead to a cure, those funds will be used to support a specific grant being led by Dr. Walter C. Willet of Harvard.
Dr. Willett is Professor of Epidemiology and Nutrition and Chairman of the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Willett is investigating the relationship between diet in childhood and adolescence, adult diet, levels of body fat, and hormonal influences, as these factors may contribute to breast cancer risk. The grant will be presented to Dr. Willett and his team as “made possible with generous support from Wilson Sporting Goods, Co.”
“When we first started looking at ways we could help in the fight against breast cancer, we sought a partner that was committed to funding research and finding a cure,” said Chris Considine, President of Wilson Sporting Goods Co. “The Breast Cancer Research Foundation has done a tremendous job of funding cutting edge research and Dr. Willetts study is the latest example of that. We are extremely proud of our long standing relationship with BCRF and we look forward to funding more research until a cure is found.”
