In Recognition Of His Advocacy For Medical Research, Durbin Presented With Inaugural Canning Leadership Award

In Recognition Of His Advocacy For Medical Research, Durbin Presented With Inaugural Canning Leadership Award

CHICAGO - U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) today was presented with the Inaugural John and Rita Canning Leadership Award from the Northwestern Memorial HealthCare Board.

"I am honored to accept the Inaugural John and Rita Canning Leadership Award from Northwestern Memorial today. Throughout my time in the Senate, making sure families have affordable health insurance and high quality care has remained on my heart and mind, as has ensuring federal funding for the medical research that makes new cures and treatments possible," said Durbin.

John and Rita Canning are Chicago philanthropists who provide over 100 scholarships a year to students from low-income Chicago neighborhoods. The Cannings also are committed to WINGS (Women in Need Growing Stronger) which provides over 40,000 nights of shelter and other comprehensive services to abused women and their children. At Northwestern, they funded the creation of the Canning Thoracic Institute (CTI), investing in the fields of thoracic surgery and respiratory medicine to meet the growing patient demand for lung care. This award recognizes their contributions to the city of Chicago, and Durbin is its first recipient.

Durbin has continuously fought for affordable, quality health care and medical research. Some of his career achievements for health care include creating the Chicago HEAL Initiative, and continuously increasing funding for the National Institutes of Health. Over the past decade, Durbin has pushed for annual five percent funding increases for NIH. Since Fiscal Year 2015 (FY15), because of Durbin's efforts, Congress has provided NIH with a 60 percent increase in annual funding, raising the appropriations level from $30 billion in FY15 to $48 billion today.

Photos can be found here.

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