Tag: joseph dileo

MassMutual New York State has launched a nonprofit to support children statewide who are living with long-term illnesses and disabilities. Making Memories That Last Forever Inc. will provide essential funds to help patients and their families create special moments as they strive to overcome major health hurdles.

The nonprofit, which will serve children in Rochester, Buffalo and Syracuse, was co-founded and inspired by MMNYS CEO Joseph DiLeo, whose wife, Rosemary DiLeo, was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia last year.

“It was an incredibly challenging time for my family, and it’s difficult to express the amount of gratitude and appreciation I have for my friends and colleagues at MassMutual,” DiLeo said in a statement.  “Through Rosemary’s fight with leukemia, we truly gained an understanding of how important it is to create shared moments with your loved ones, which is what helped inspire the creation of Making Memories. We wanted to channel this passion and pay forward the love and support we felt to other families in need.”

The nonprofit will collaborate with regional hospitals and health care systems across its footprint to identify patient candidates for the program who are fighting pediatric cancer, living with disabilities or facing other serious life-threatening conditions.

Through the John R. Oishei Children’s Hospital and the Children’s Hospital of Buffalo Foundation, Making Memories has identified its first recipient, a 4-year-old boy from Western New York who is battling a long-term illness that has required in-facility care on a sustained basis.

“We are extremely excited to partner with yet another dynamic corporate citizenship initiative in our community, again showing how much Western New Yorkers care about children’s health,” said Andrew Bennett, vice president of the Children’s Hospital of Buffalo Foundation.

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