Duke University’s Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center will
soon offer new mental and emotional support for its patients, their families
and their caregivers — all thanks to the donation of a former patient’s daughter.
Durham native Rebecca Feinglos donated $250,000 to create the
Susan & Mark Feinglos Grief initiative in honor of her parents.
The program
was announced on Saturday, which is National Grief Awareness Day.
The money will support the creation of a grief pilot program to
support people connected to care at the tumor center.
Feinglos has lots of memories of Duke University and its medical
center.
“My parents came to Durham in 1972. My dad started his
residency at Duke and they never left,” Feinglos said. “My mom
eventually became the director of the Duke Medical Center Library. My dad rose
in the ranks of the endocrine division here. He eventually became the Chief of
the division.”
Not all her memories are good ones. Her mom was diagnosed with
Glioblastoma, the most deadly form of brain cancer when Feinglos was
five-years-old.
“I don’t have a lot of great (memories). I have a lot of
scary ones. I remember being scared of things. It is scary when your person is
going through any cancer,” Feinglos said.
Her mother, Susan Feingloss, died eight years later. Leaving
Rebecca’s father, Mark, to raise her and her brother as a single parent.
“My dad was my best friend,” Feinglos said. “Most
of my favorite memories with my dad are basketball games and Duke football
games.”
Feinglos was working in education when her dad died of a sudden
illness in March of 2020.
“My mom’s death is something I survived through and overcame.
That was a really hard thing in my life and I got through it and I was over it
and then when my dad died, it made me learn that you’re never over your
grief,” she said.
Feinglos changed careers after her dad’s death and started a grief
support organization called Grieve Leave.
“I am unlucky enough that my grief has been front-loaded and
I now I think have a weird privilege that I get to use the knowledge that I
have and help other people,” Feinglos said.
“It’s an extraordinary problem and no one until [Rebecca] has addressed this.”
As a continuation of her work to support those grieving, she has
now launched a philanthropy called the Feinglos Fund. It is through this fund
and Grieve Leave that she was able to donate the money to start the new grief program at
Duke’s Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center.
“What we don’t have is anything that addresses the grief that
(patients), their family members and the medical team all feel from this,”
Dr. Henry S. Friedman said.
Doctors Henry Friedman and Allen Friedman are Co-Deputy Directors
of the Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center. They also knew Feinglos’
parents and treated her mother.
“What do you say to a 5 year-old when her mom has a brain too
and how do you get the kid through that and that’s always been sort of in the
DNA of the brain quality of life work,” Dr. Allen Friedman said.
Dr. Henry Friedman said Duke’s brain tumor center gets 3000
applications for care every year. Of those, the center treats about a thousand
patients annually.
“We send out a list every month of the number of patients
that we’ve lost and it’s a very lengthy list,” Dr. Henry Friedman said.
“But we don’t have though is any way to really help the patient while
they’re being treated or in palliative care mode, for families either before or
after and medical care team that takes care of them, deal with the grief which
we will feel. It’s an extraordinary problem and no one until Becky has
addressed this.”
Over the next five years, the money donated will go towards
researching best practices for how to provide grief support and putting the
findings into practice at the brain tumor center.
Feinglos hopes the program
will serve as a model for other healthcare systems in the future.
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