The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia received a $6.4 million gift from the family of a Central Bucks East High School graduate who tragically passed away from a rare cancer, writes Jeff Werner for The Patch.  

Connor Boyle, who graduated from the Doylestown high school in 2022, was only 18 years old when he died from osteosarcoma, a rare bone tumor. After Connor was diagnosed in 2019, his grandparents, David and Patricia Holveck, launched “The Connor Initiative,” which helped fund a groundbreaking program at CHOP to advance the search for a cure.  

The Mitochondria and Cancer Connections Research Program is a collaboration of researchers and key leaders who aim to reveal the “biological mechanisms and strategies at play at the edge of cellular life and death.”  

The Holveck family hopes that this program will yield new therapies for the rare disease, which affects 400 children in the U.S. every year.  

Even some of the most aggressive chemotherapy treatments or surgeries have still seen poor results.  

The initiative will help researchers develop novel therapies using state-of-the-art techniques and patient feedback.  

Despite the 20 rounds of chemotherapy, 12 surgeries, and 15 rounds of radiation, Connor graduated with a 4.0 GPA and was set to begin school at Villanova University.  

Read more about the Central Bucks East grad’s family dedication to finding a cure in The Patch.  

More about the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.