Nightcaps for Cancer For The Samuel Waxman Cancer Research Foundation
- Jenna Mackin
- Sep 17, 2015
- 2 min read
Photos by Brian Offidani
New York Fashion Week saw the September 10 debut of "Nightcaps for Cancer," a stylish new benefit for the Samuel Waxman Cancer Research Foundation’s brain cancer research programs. Event chairs Lauren Phelps, founder of the women’s fashion line Leona, and Sarah Littlejohn, CEO of the luxury costume jewelry brand OCIE New York, welcomed a fashionable crowd of young New York professionals to the affair, which was graciously hosted by Nancy Loving, Director of ArtPort Studios, the exclusive representative of American expressionist Harold Garde. The artist’s colorful creations provided a striking ambience for the gathering, which treated guests to delicious food by Elan, specialty drinks by Chopin and Empire Merchants and music by special guest DJ Timo Weiland. Phelps and Littlejohn were inspired to create the Nightcaps for Cancer fundraiser by their shared experience of losing relatives to brain cancer. Phelps’ mother Jonnie Fay Leonard passed away from the disease at the age of 48 while Littlejohn’s sister Liza Pope succumbed to brain cancer at 28. After meeting a year ago within fashion industry circles, the two became fast friends, drawn together by their love for design and their passion for helping science to find a brain cancer cure. To this end, Phelps and Littlejohn partnered with the Samuel Waxman Cancer Research Foundation to raise funds for the work of the foundation’s brain cancer research team: Albert S. Baldwin, Ph.D., of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Kevan Shokat, Ph.D., and William Weiss, M.D., Ph.D., both of the University of California, San Francisco. Drs. Baldwin, Shokat and Weiss are collaborating on a project that aims to develop new drugs that target Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor by blocking the HER1 protein that provokes unregulated cell growth that leads to brain cancer. “The Samuel Waxman Cancer Research Foundation is grateful to Lauren Phelps, Sarah Littlejohn and their guests for supporting the work of our funded brain cancer scientists,” said Samuel Waxman, M.D., Founder and CEO of the Samuel Waxman Cancer Research Foundation. “We are inspired by their generosity and dedication and look forward to more collaborations with them to help advance brain cancer research.”
For more info on the Samuel Waxman Cancer Research Foundation visit www.waxmancancer.org.