Help Wendy Fund Hope & Fight Glioma
The Wendy Olson Fund
Wendy’s Story
Our beloved Wendy passed away on September 9th after a decade-long battle with a rare brain brain cancer called Glioma. The last lines of that chapter, however, are not her story.
As strange as it might seem for someone whose life was cut far too short, Wendy’s story was really one of hope. It was one where the disease never stopped her from being that adventurous, playful, funny, big hearted explorer.
In the fall of 2011, the morning she learned that a six-centimeter brain tumor was upending her life, Wendy dragged me to the Boathouse in Central Park to get a glass of Champagne. Smiling that infectious way she always did, she gently held my hand and asked, “So I bet you can’t call me a hypochondriac now, huh?”
Always, a joke, a smile, a light in the darkness.
Always Looking Forward
In December 2019, the day after an MRI showed that her disease had transformed into something much more aggressive, she was on a plane to Australia to celebrate New Year’s Eve on the Harbor and watch the sunrise over Uluru. I asked her if she wanted to cancel, and she said she wanted to live.
Always looking forward.
Always exploring
She squeezed out every ounce of life, exploring the ends of the earth from Tahiti, Hawaii, New Zealand, Australia, France, Britain, Italy, Austria, and Germany to Morocco, Singapore, Maldives, Netherlands, Mexico, Peru and Switzerland (not to mention Disney World).
Every clinical trial gave her the hope to continue. Every treatment gave her the time to live her life.
Always brave, always exploring.
Always Hopeful
She went into each treatment ready to fight against the dying of that light, and she did it with such energy and optimism.
Her doctors at UCSF were her biggest cheerleaders, her loving friends, and her fiercest advocates. They gave her strength.
Always hopeful.
Always, the Big Heart
Despite all that she faced, despite the crushing injustice of this disease, she was always thinking about everyone but herself.
As her mobility became more challenging, she spent a few hours each week stocking a toy chest for our friend's children so every visit would be filled with surprise and delight.
In the last week of her life, there were, sadly, painful procedures, but as tears rolled down her cheeks, she would always reach out and touch the nurses on the arm to comfort them. To thank them. To tell them not to cry. To tell them it wasn't their fault. To tell them it will be ok.
Always, the big heart.
Fueled by Hope: Why are we doing this?
There was fear, too. Every scan was a dark cloud and every setback was a crushing loss, but for Wendy, there was always hope that held back the darkness. Hope in a treatment, hope in her doctors, hope in science. It allowed her to look to the future, and it gave her strength to live her life.
Wendy would want to give that gift of hope to others.
Over a decade fighting, she underwent three surgeries, two radiation treatments, eight different chemotherapies, two official clinical trials, five "clinical trials of one" and was granted compassionate access to new immunotherapies before FDA approval.
The cost of that hope, however, was high: hundreds of hours of investment by her doctors researching new therapies, planning novel treatments, creating "clinical trials of one", and negotiating with drug companies for compassionate access to medications before FDA approval. The list goes on and on.
The dream of every neuro-oncologist is to offer that type of hope to every patient, but the time they can invest in any one patient, any one area of research is limited.
Funding Hope: What are we doing?
Our donations will advance that dream.
The fund is dedicated to helping patients access to the highly customized, cutting-edge care Wendy received, and to add one more incredible chapter to Wendy’s life through giving.
That care gave Wendy hope. It gave her 10 years she would not have had otherwise. It gave her the strength to live her life to the fullest. Not every patient has access to the resources necessary to get that level of care, and nothing would make Wendy more proud than to give that gift of hope, of time, of joy to others.
Through these donations, Wendy's fund will allow neuro-oncologists to:
Dedicate more time to each patient
Directly enable an individual neuro-oncologist to see fewer patients but spend more time on each, designing and delivering the time-intensive, custom and cutting-edge care Wendy received. Without that care, Wendy would not have seen her 40th birthday. More patients need that kind of support. This endowment is dedicated to enabling that high touch, individualized care.
Focus on promising clinical research
Wendy exhausted "standard of care" therapy in 2012. Every treatment since was an experimental investment in hope and downpayment on a cure. The unique mission of the physician-scientist was critical to Wendy's 10-year fight: finding new treatments for the future while fighting for the patient today. This funding gives time and resources to deliver that hope from the lab to the bedside.
This support is all the more critical for a disease as rare and challenging as Wendy's.
Our Goal
We are already two-thirds of the way to our two million dollar goal for Wendy’s fund.
Wendy spent so much time fighting, so much time thinking of others. I am hoping that her friends and family can honor that in a small way. To reach out to her and place a hand on her shoulder. To comfort her. To thank her. To tell her not to cry. To tell her it wasn't her fault. To tell her it will be ok. To give others hope.
Wendy will give other Glioma patients the gift of hope and time that she cherished so dearly in perpetuity, and her name will live on forever as the permanent Wendy Olson Professorship in Neuro-Oncology at UCSF.
Thank you for keeping Wendy in your hearts, for contributing to this wonderful cause. I was graced to have Wendy, my best friend, my partner and my deepest inspiration for twelve, too short years.
I miss her every day, but I am so grateful your compassion, kindness, and support will allow her to give one last selfless gift to the world and add one more incredible chapter to her story. I can think of no better tribute than her name living on at the very place that gave her life.
- Phillip Wood-Smith