LAS VEGAS (FOX5) — Las Vegas Raiders quarterback Fernando Mendoza and his family, in partnership with the National MS Society, delivered a $500,000 gift Thursday to the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine to support multiple sclerosis research through the Mendoza Family Fund.
The donation is made in honor of Mendoza’s mother, Elsa, who lives with MS. Combined with the family’s earlier grassroots fundraising of more than $414,000, the Mendoza family’s total commitment to MS research now exceeds $940,000.
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Mendoza speaks at ceremony
Mendoza addressed the room during the event, his voice catching as he spoke about his mother.
“Today isn’t about football. It’s about my mom,” Mendoza said. “When I accepted the Heisman Trophy, I said she showed me what real toughness looks like. I might have been talking about football, but I was really talking about life.”
Gift to fund stem cell trial
The donation will help launch a first-of-its-kind MS stem cell transplantation trial this fall at the Miller School’s MS Center of Excellence, one of the country’s leading MS research institutions.
Dr. Bruce Bebo, the National MS Society’s Chief Research and Medical Affairs Officer, said the gift was a way of “moving discovery out of the lab and closer to real, affordable, accessible treatment for the nearly one million people in this country living with MS.”
National MS Society marks 80 years
The gift comes as the National MS Society marks 80 years of funding the research behind every FDA-approved MS therapy that exists today. The Society is also launching its Fund Answers campaign this month, spotlighting research breakthroughs made possible by supporters like the Mendoza family.
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