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Cranium Crusaders founders Cris Zavaleta (left) and Cindy Atkinson (right) celebrate their fundraising efforts by presenting Dr. Timothy Cloughesy with a check. Photo: Cornelia Kurtew |
Cranium Crusaders, an organization that raises awareness and support for brain-cancer research, held its eighth annual fundraiser in Long Beach, California, on September 18, 2014. The nonprofit was founded by Cris Zavaleta and Cindy Atkinson, who met at UCLA, where their late husbands Hank Zavaleta and Tom Atkinson were being treated for brain cancer. Both men had been diagnosed with glioblastoma multiforme, the most common and most aggressive malignant primary brain tumor. Sadly, the women lost their husbands to the disease, but a friendship and a shared desire to find a cure were born.
To date, the event has raised $450,000. All proceeds from the evening benefit UCLA brain-cancer research and the work of Dr. Timothy Cloughesy (RES ’91, FEL ’92), director of UCLA Neuro-Oncology.