Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Received “The Starlight Award” together with Roy Vagelos from the Children’s Inn at NIH. I received it for the “Science” and Roy for his extraordinary influence on building of the Inn in 1990 with Merck money when he was at the time the CEO of Merck. Ceremony held at the Liaison Hotel at 415 New Jersey Avenue, N.W. Many notables from Congress and entertainment at the event. To name a few: Congressmen Chris van Hollen, John Dingle, Barney Frank, Doris Matsui; Sens. Frank Lautenberg, Roy Blunt; TV Anchor Gordon Peterson. MC was Cokie Roberts. Twentyeight year old former AIDS patient Hydeia Broadbent gave speech and I was praised for helping to develop the drugs that saved her life when she came to the Inn and NIH at age 6 years old with advanced AIDS and now she is healthy and happy – many tears in the audience.