Four Seasons founders donate $10M to Mount Sinai Hospital

Mount Sinai Hospital, one of the most well-established health sciences centres in Toronto, was the recipient of a special donation earlier this month.  The founders of the Four Seasons Hotel and Resorts donated an incredible $10 million to Mount Sinai in order to finance cancer research and care services.

Rosalie and Isadore Sharp founded and chair the Four Seasons Hotel.  But the couple went through a tragedy in 1978 when their youngest son, Christopher passed away after being diagnosed with melanoma.

The Sharps hope to prevent similar tragedies for other families, and the $10 million donation will be used to develop a new health wing at Mount Sinai called ‘The Christopher Sharp Cancer Centre.’

According to preliminary information from Mount Sinai, the new cancer centre will allow Mount Sinai’s cancer surgery, medicine, and research programs to operate together in one wing.  The goal is to develop special oncology programs to research new sources of therapy for a number of cancers found throughout the human body.

In a statement announced alongside the donation, the Sharps shared the pain of losing their son, and their hope to help other families avoid a similar loss.

“While our motivation for supporting the extraordinary cancer care at Mount Sinai is deeply personal, as a way to honour our late son’s memory, it is also rooted in a profound respect for the inspiring clinical care delivered to patients every day at Mount Sinai.”

Mount Sinai estimates that the new cancer centre will help service up to 2,000 surgical patients, and up to 4,000 chemotherapy patients.