Hilton Foundation Follows a Familiar—and Promising—Playbook in Tackling a Debilitating Disease
There are various avenues through which philanthropies develop a deep interest in a funding cause. Often, it is through their officers’ compassionate contact with individuals or communities in need. But in some cases, it is through a more personal experience and hardship. We’ve seen that impulse in the case of the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust which became a leader in the oft-neglected field of type 1 diabetes after the daughter of a Helmsley grandson and foundation trustee contracted the disease. Another example is the Conrad Hilton Foundation’s burgeoning contribution to research on multiple sclerosis. Marilyn Hilton—the wife of Barron Hilton, and mother of Steven Hilton, the longtime former CEO of the foundation—was an MS sufferer for most of her adult life. This personal backstory explains how the Hilton Foundation came to devote funding to a search for an MS cure, as well as treatments to reduce MS suffering.
About 1 in 750 people have a chance of contracting MS, which is a debilitating disease of the nervous system. Current research suggests that the condition is triggered by an environmental event among people already genetically predisposed to contract the disease, but its precise causes remain unknown. Most but not all MS sufferers are between the ages of 25 and 50, and women are two to three times more likely than men to contract MS. There are also several types or “courses” of the disease, the two most dominant involving a progressive worsening of neurological function and body control. . .