The Story Behind PTC

Project To Cure was founded in 2004 by Charles and Andrea Hirsch with the support of their family and friends. It is a grass roots organization that operates under the Northwell Health System Foundation.

Their son Alex, who was diagnosed with a benign brain tumor in May 2000, was the reason behind starting the organization. With non-cancerous tumors, there is an established protocol used to treat the diagnosis, but for cancerous tumors, they are too aggressive and there currently are no protocols for a safe treatment process. Unfortunately, this leads to a high percentage of patients who do not survive.

Four years after their son’s recovery at Cohen Children's Medical Center, the Hirsch’s were interested in finding a means to give back to the facility that cured their son. They were approached by Alex's surgeon, Dr. Mark Mittler, and asked if they were interested in raising funds to support a novel line of research that targeted cancerous brain tumors.

After a brief meeting, Project To Cure was founded. With the help of Dr. Mark Mittler, our head researcher Dr. Marc Symons, and the team at the Feinstein Institute, we have the ability to make a change and save hundreds of lives by funding the lab to find a cure for this dreadful tumor.