Last December, doctors at Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children saved two-year-old Mikayla Kassam’s life.
This week, Mikayla’s grateful parents – Anson Funds founder Moez Kassam and his wife, Marissa, a former banker – donated $15-million to fund SickKids research aimed at helping children around the world get the same health care that saved their daughter.
Mikayla Kassam had a relatively common ailment, pneumonia, that turned deadly serious. At one stage, with her parents at her bedside, her heart stopped beating. Doctors put her into a medically induced coma and kept her on a ventilator for several weeks.
Emerging from the ordeal with a healthy child who has only fond memories of her time in the hospital prompted the Kassams to establish two pediatric research positions and fund a new position at SickKids: a nurse responsible for following up with families after their children leave the intensive care unit.
“Our gift is meant to support research that improves outcomes for kids everywhere, including the hospital that did so much for our daughter,” Ms. Kassam said in an interview. “We were inspired by conversations with our doctors on what they would change to deliver health care better.”
The family’s initial donation tripled in size and scope as SickKids Foundation chair Walied Soliman and the chair of law firm Norton Rose Fulbright discussed the gift with Mr. Kassam.
This week, SickKids announced the Kassam Family Chair and Fellowship in Neurocritical Care, which is meant to bring top talent from around the world to the hospital, and the Kassam Family Critical Care Award in Innovation, which is meant to fund early-stage research in pediatric medicine.
“We hope this investment will help give other families the same hope and comfort we received during Mikayla’s time here,” Mr. Kassam said.
The hospital also named its pediatric intensive-care unit – the largest in the country – the Kassam Family PICU.
“It is an incredible experience when visionary philanthropists like the Kassams share our appreciation for the level of expertise at SickKids after a first-hand experience,” said Jennifer Bernard, the chief executive officer of SickKids Foundation.
SickKids draws doctors and staff from around the world, and three physicians the Kassams credit with saving their daughter – the third of their four children – all trained outside Canada before coming to the Toronto hospital.
Nicole McKinnon, a critical-care physician, returned to Canada in 2018 after earning her medical degree in New York. Barney Scholefield is a British critical-care physician who joined SickKids in 2023.
And Briseida Mema received her medical training in Albania before arriving at SickKids in 2005.
The Kassam family’s gift means “SickKids will be able to attract and retain top tier faculty and trainees and advance the field of pediatric critical care medicine,” said Steven Schwartz, the chief of SickKids’ department of critical care medicine.
After she went into cardiac arrest, doctors at SickKids operated on Mikayla in the cardiac critical-care unit, the first facility in the country dedicated to treating young people with heart disease.
The unit sees more than 800 patients a year from around the world and performs 60 percent of Canada’s heart transplants for children and 89 percent of Ontario’s complex heart surgeries for infants.
Mr. Kassam founded Toronto-based Anson in 2007, and over the past 17 years its flagship fund is up 1,140 per cent. The firm oversees more than $3-billion of investments for its clients.
The gift to SickKids came from the Moez & Marissa Kassam Equity Fund, which currently has approximately $80 million in assets.
It focuses on what the family calls “strategic philanthropy,” with data-driven research leading to results-oriented commitments to causes that can create systemic change. The couple branded it a fund rather than a foundation to demonstrate their goal of “maximizing return on investment—not just financially, but in terms of social progress and human potential.”
Last week, the fund donated $5 million to Toronto Metropolitan University’s new medical school to help recruit deserving students by offering scholarships worth as much as $30,000 a year.
Mr. Kassam and real estate executive Adrian Rocca, the founder of rental property developer Fitzrovia, teamed up to create a data-driven fundraiser for athletes with Olympic aspirations called Great to Gold. The program supported competitors who had shown they were in the top tier of low-profile sports and gave money to Canadian athletes who won medals at last summer’s Paris Games in events such as the hammer throw, fencing, and canoeing.
The Moez & Marissa Kassam Equity Fund was established in 2016, to serve as the charitable platform for founders Moez Kassam and Marissa.
Influenced by the immigrant experience, they both grew up in large, close-knit families that prioritized relationships, the spirit of generosity, and a strong disdain towards injustice.
Together, they share these values and work to pass them on to their children, Madelyn, Mila, Mikayla, and Milan.