The Roberta J. Newsham Memorial Diabetes Research Fund has been established
to support diabetes research at the University of Nebraska Medical Center
College of Medicine. The Newsham family created the fund through a family
gift and memorial donations creating a $10,000 endowment at the University
of Nebraska Foundation.
Roberta Bobbie Newsham of Ashland died in 2002, after struggling with
diabetes for 46 of her 59 years. Throughout her struggle, her focus was
on beating the disease.
She always talked about finding a cure, and that was really a passion
of hers, said her daughter, Leigh Ann Ochsner of Waverly. We wanted the
money to go somewhere where we knew that they would try to find a cure,
she said. UNMC was an obvious choice for Ochsner and her family.
The fund will support faculty and student research projects and the
surgery department.
This gift from the Newsham family highlights the ever growing need
for research in the area of diabetes, said James Armitage, M.D., dean
of the UNMC College of Medicine. The Roberta J. Newsham Memorial Diabetes
Research Fund will support faculty and student research projects which
will work toward easing and ultimately curing diabetes. Gifts like this
are important because they not only highlight the work that we do here
at UNMC, but also the valuable relationships that are formed in the process.
As a model patient, Newsham forged friendships and left positive impressions
during her care at UNMC. Newsham was always interested in knowing as much
as she could about diabetes. She always had a thirst to learn more in
order to take better care of herself, said Sue Miller, kidney and pancreas
transplant coordinator at The Nebraska Medical Center.
Mom was excited about the technology that was up and coming to
regulate diabetes, Ochsner said. Islet cells were among the science that
Newsham was particularly interested in.
Miller said the medical center is in the process of starting an islet
program. Rather than a full organ transplant, one can receive an islet
cell transplant program. Islet cells that produce insulin are isolated,
then infused into liver. The procedure has the potential to be a cure for
diabetes.
Gifts to the Roberta J. Newsham Memorial Diabetes Research Fund may
be sent to the University of Nebraska Foundation, Attn: Amy Volk,
8712 West Dodge, Omaha, NE 68114. Checks should be made payable to the
University of Nebraska Foundation.
The University of Nebraska Foundation is a nonprofit corporation supplementing
support for students, faculty, facilities and programs at the University
of Nebraskas four campuses through gifts from alumni, friends, corporations
and other foundations.
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