Gabrielle's Angel Foundation held its 28th Annual Angel Ball at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City on Monday, raising $3 million toward less toxic treatments for blood cancers. The gala honored actress and singer Dionne Warwick, Wonder Woman star Lynda Carter and philanthropist Nicola “Coco” Verses, with performances from Deborah Cox, Shaggy and Taylor Dayne filling out a night built around a cause that has touched nearly everyone in the room.
The evening's biggest moments came less from the stage and more from the floor, according to amNewYork. During her paddle raise, attorney and television personality Star Jones asked anyone in the crowd untouched by cancer to keep talking among themselves — and the room, per that outlet's account, fell completely silent. Jones went on to raise more than $340,000 for the foundation through that single appeal.
Among those in the audience was Kelly Leach, whose husband, Todd Day, was diagnosed with stage III diffuse large B-cell lymphoma in 2017. The couple was reportedly pursuing fertility treatment when doctors found a secondary lymphoma seven years after his initial diagnosis, and Day died in October 2024 from complications related to treatment for that second cancer, the same amNewYork report states. Leach gave birth to their daughter, Chloé, nearly a year after his death and has since become an advocate for safer cancer therapies.
A Foundation Born From Loss
Gabrielle's Angel Foundation traces its origin to 1996, the year Gabrielle Rich Aouad died of acute myelogenous leukemia at age 27. An Oxford University graduate fluent in five languages who had studied acting and written a screenplay called “Surprise” that she hoped would one day be produced, Aouad was diagnosed with the disease in May of that year, according to the foundation's own account on gabriellesangels.org.
Her mother, Denise Rich, donated her own bone marrow in an effort to save her daughter's life. Aouad is said to have told her mother at the time, “Mummy is giving me birth again,” per the foundation's telling of her story. She left behind a wish that others be spared the suffering she endured, and Denise Rich later founded the organization bearing her daughter's name along with her other daughters, Daniella Rich Kilstock and Ilona Rich Schachter, who together fund research into less punishing treatments and cures for leukemia, lymphoma and related blood cancers, as reported by Fashion Week Daily.
Thirty Years of Research Grants
The foundation says it has awarded more than $47 million in research grants since its founding, per Fashion Week Daily's reporting on the gala, while a 2024 announcement from its research partner, The Mark Foundation, had put the global giving figure at more than $41 million as of that February, with an average of 88 cents of every dollar raised going directly to research. The two organizations have worked together since 2020, and in 2024 they announced two collaborative grants totaling $1 million, available exclusively to current and former Gabrielle's Angels grantees.
This year's cycle added seven new Medical Research Awards totaling $1,575,000, according to the foundation's own 2026 research grants announcement. The newly funded projects include work on cytokine dependencies in leukemic evolution, TP53-mutated myeloid neoplasms, CAR T-cell therapy and leukemia stem cells, continuing a mission the foundation describes as finding better, less toxic treatments, preventions and cures for leukemia, lymphoma and related blood cancers, as Billboard reported ahead of the event.
From Early Grants to an FDA Approval
Emcee Deborah Cox told the crowd that early foundation funding for Dr. Scott Armstrong had helped pave the way for a new leukemia treatment that recently received FDA approval, per Fashion Week Daily's account of her remarks. The foundation's own history of that research states that its early support for Armstrong's work directly led to the eventual development of revumenib, a menin inhibitor now FDA-approved for relapsed or refractory acute leukemia with a KMT2A translocation, along with the preclinical and clinical trials that followed.
Cox also performed Whitney Houston's “The Greatest Love of All” during the evening, and the dance floor kept moving to sets from DJ M.O.S. and DJ Kiss after the formal program wound down. Kathy Hilton served as dinner chair for the night. Angel Ball 2026 tickets had ranged from $2,000 to $100,000, with the foundation noting that contributions are tax-deductible as provided by law, though $295 of each ticket price was not, according to the event listing on gabriellesangels.org.
