Mass Eye and Ear is an international center for treatment and home to the world’s largest vision and hearing research centers. Mass Eye and Ear is a member of Mass General Brigham and a teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School.
Mass Eye and Ear, located in Boston, Massachusetts and part of the Mass General Brigham integrated healthcare system, specializes in high-quality care and treatment of patients with disorders of the eyes, ears, nose, throat, head and neck.
Including its main campus on Charles Street in Boston, Mass Eye and Ear has a network of more than 20 patient care sites throughout Greater Boston, including Cape Cod and Providence.
Mass Eye and Ear clinicians are driven by a mission to find cures for blindness, deafness and diseases of the head and neck. Internationally acclaimed since its founding in 1824, Mass Eye and Ear employs full-time, board-certified physicians offering high quality and affordable care in ophthalmology and otolaryngology that ranges from the routine to the very complex.
Mass Eye and Ear is a Harvard Medical School teaching hospital and trains future leaders in ophthalmology and otolaryngology head and neck surgery, through residency as well as clinical and research fellowship programs.
Also a center of research, Mass Eye and Ear merged with Schepens Eye Research Institute in 2011, creating the largest community of vision and hearing researchers anywhere in the world.
Mass Eye and Ear is home to one of the largest and most productive communities of ear, nose, and throat (otolaryngology–head and neck surgery) researchers in the world. Their team of researchers are working to develop cutting-edge treatments for disorders of the ear, nose, throat, head and neck.
William J. Finigan, also known as “Willie” and who The Willie Fund was created in honor of, was a patient of Mass Eye and Ear for each of his multiple battles with cancer.
Willie first became a patient at Mass Eye and Ear in 2009 when he was diagnosed with Throat Cancer. Mass Eye and Ear’s Dr. Daniel Deschler was Willie’s surgeon and, for the next year, the leading doctor over all of Willie’s treatment. In 2010, Willie was given a clean bill of health. In 2015 Dr. Deschler gave Willie the news that he was officially cancer-free.
Nearly 10 years later, in September 2019, Willie was diagnosed with Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma (HNSCC) of the mouth. Mass Eye and Ear’s surgical team successfully removed the cancer in October 2019 ; most notably by Dr. Daniel Deschler, the same doctor who successfully performed Willie’s throat surgery 10 years before.
Unfortunately a year and two months later, in December 2020, Willie found himself back at Mass Eye and Ear with another HNSCC diagnosis, this time of the neck.
The devoted team at Mass Eye and Ear immediately prescribed radiation treatment to help shrink the tumor, after which Willie would begin immunotherapy, a treatment which uses medication to train the body’s immune system to attack cancer cells.
Unfortunately, Willie lost his battle to cancer on August 20th 2021.
“We are so grateful to Casey and the entire family for establishing the Willie Fund to raise funds for head and neck cancer research at Mass Eye and Ear,” said Dr. Deschler. “This is a truly wonderful way to honor his amazing strength, perseverance and positivity in the face of this awful disease and provide the path for making a lasting difference in the future care of head and neck cancer patients.”
Mass Eye and Ear shares The Willie Fund story
The Willie Fund is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization committed to raising awareness and supporting the search for a cure of Head and Neck Cancer. Every contribution goes directly to Mass Eye and Ear in Boston, Massachusetts; helping to fund groundbreaking research and the fight to end cancer.