LauderLau text worth $100K
LEONARD LEON Lauder — whose beloved former wife Evelyn did so much to help fight breast cancer before her death — texted in a donation of $100,000 for breast cancer research during a prominent event honoring Vera Wang. Lauder has continued to donate generously to breast cancer research after the 2011 death of Evelyn, who personally raised millions and formalized the pink ribbon as a symbol of breast cancer awareness. He and his new wife, Judy, made the donation in honor of fashion icon Wang during the Breast Cancer Research Foundation’s awards luncheon Thursday. Wang was honored at the event — attended by 1,000 guests and hosted by Nina Garcia — for her fund-raising work to help women fight breast cancer and her support of BCRF, founded by Evelyn Lauder in 1993. She said, “I have always been drawn to BCRF in no small part due to its founder, the inimitable Evelyn Lauder, a woman I so admired. In a way this award today both reflects and belongs to her.” Notable guests included model Nina Agdal (left), Joan Lunden, Donna Karan, Coco Kopelman, Alina Cho and “The View” lifestyle expert Gretta Monahan, who just announced she has been diagnosed with breast cancer. But many attendees were rather more star-struck by Dr. William G. Kaelin, the 2019 Nobel Prize recipient in medicine, whose research was aided by a grant from BCRF. He was among 275 top breast cancer doctors and researchers who flew in from around the world to attend the event and symposium. BCRF is the largest private funder of breast cancer research and has awarded $66 million in grants. When receiving the Nobel Prize, Kaelin had said his only regret was ththat his wife, cancer surgeon Dr. Carolyn Kaelin, a breast cancer survivor who died of brain cancer in 2015, wasn’t there to see it. “There were a couple of years after I lost her, when I thought, please, no prize this year” without his wife to celebrate with him. “But now I’ve reached a point where ... [I imagine her] looking down, saying, ‘See, I told you this would happen.’ ”