A $2.5 Million Gift to Huntsman Cancer Institute, in Honor of Lola

This October, we made the largest donation in our company's history. Lola Blankets has given $2.5 million to Huntsman Cancer Institute in Salt Lake City, the hospital where our co-founders Tommy and Will Higham's mother received her breast cancer treatment. The gift will build out the mammography wing at Huntsman's new cancer hospital, and that wing will be named in her honor.

Tommy and Will shared the news on The Jennifer Hudson Show, in the middle of Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

"Today, we're incredibly humbled to announce our largest donation yet. Being able to give back in this way is an incredibly meaningful moment for our family." –Tommy Higham

 

The woman behind the name

Lola Blankets is a tribute to Amy Higham, known to her family as "Lola." She lived a life devoted to the service of others, and she remains the inspiration behind everything we do.

Through years of living with breast cancer and enduring its treatments, Amy found comfort in her soft faux fur blanket. Over time, it became a source of comfort for her whole family. Before she passed, she gave each of her children a blanket just like hers, so they would have something to hold onto when she could no longer be there.

In 2021, Tommy and Will founded Lola Blankets to honor her and the love she left them, with one purpose: bringing life-changing softness to the world. What began at our Utah headquarters has grown into a national brand, with retail stores in New York City and Salt Lake City.

A wing built for early detection

For the Higham family, this gift returns to the place where their mother's care happened.

"This is the place that cared for our mom, so being able to make this donation in her honor is incredibly emotional for our entire family. Our hope is that this wing will help more women have access to the screening and care they need and ultimately help families like ours." –Will Higham

Blankets for the Brave

Our relationship with Huntsman goes back to our earliest days. Through our Blankets for the Brave program, we deliver blankets to Huntsman's breast oncology division every month, so each patient there receives one of her own.

"It's therapeutic to do something in her honor and help other women who are going through what she went through." –Tommy Higham

The $2.5 million gift builds on that same idea, at a much larger scale.

"Everything we've built started with the comfort one blanket gave our mom. To now be able to turn that into a $2.5 million gift that can impact so many other women feels like the most meaningful way we could honor her."

How we gave this October

Alongside the $2.5 million gift, our blankets carried the giving through the month:

  • Our two new pink blankets: 100% of sales went to Huntsman Cancer Institute.

  • The Rosewater Blanket: 10% of sales went to Huntsman Cancer Institute.

  • The Pink Check Blanket: 10% of sales went to the Morgan Pressel Foundation, which supports breast cancer early detection and treatment.

Thank you to everyone who shopped the collection this month. To learn more about Huntsman Cancer Institute's work, visit huntsmancancer.org.

Purchases made by residents of Alabama, Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, Mississippi and South Carolina did not trigger a donation.

 

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