Hillsboro Business Donates $1 Million to Knight Cancer Center

Willamette Dental Group made a promise to donate $1 million to the Knight Cancer Challenge.

And kept that promise. And then some.

The Hillsboro company had promised to raise $1 million for the Knight Cancer Institute at OHSU.

They did better than that.

Employees donated $250,000. The company matched that dollar for dollar.

Then company CEO Dr. Eugene Skourtes and his wife, Bonnie, made their own donation, raising the total to more than $1 million.

"Cancer impacts everyone in a very personal way; our families, our friends and our colleagues. In living our core value of compassion, we can help fight a vicious disease that claims many lives and we can accomplish that goal together," Skourtes said. “What better reward could we possibly have then to know that we helped cure cancer?"

The Knight Cancer Institute recently announced the hiring of a nanotechnologist, Sadik Evener, to head its Center for Early Detection Research.