Determined to ensure a future free of childhood cancers, Sherrie and Michael Wells established the Hugs for Brady Foundation in 2009 in the name of their son, Brady Michael, who died of a rare form of leukemia at the age of 23 months. The foundation’s most important mission, says Sherrie DC’96, is to “eradicate childhood cancer by supporting cutting-edge research.” To help reach the goal, the foundation recently pledged $500,000 to Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey to fund the institute’s first laboratory devoted to its Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Program. The institute, which manages roughly 6,000 pediatric patient visits annually, has long provided the most advanced treatment options for children with cancer and blood diseases, a tradition of innovation on which the Hugs for Brady gift will build. Under Peter Cole, the Embrace Kids Foundation Endowed Chair in Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, the lab will attempt to develop treatments for pediatric cancer and for reducing the toxicity of anticancer therapies—research that will benefit children worldwide. The Hugs for Brady Foundation has supported the institute before, including a $300,000 gift for research into pediatric precision medicine and a $50,000 Pediatric Young Investigator Award. With this new gift, Sherrie says, the institute is closer than ever to giving all children what they deserve: “the chance to play, learn from their mistakes, go to prom, attend college, and grow old with the people they love.”