PORTLAND, Maine (AP) – Maine-born actor Patrick Dempsey returned home to accept an award for his work helping cancer patients.
Dempsey – most famous for his role as Dr Derek Shepherd in the TV series Grey’s Anatomy – and the Jackson Laboratory were awarded the Maine Creative Industries Award on Saturday in Portland.
Forty-eight-year-old Dempsey was inspired by his mother’s battle with ovarian cancer to help found the Patrick Dempsey Centre for Cancer Hope & Healing at Central Maine Medical Centre in Lewiston. His mother, Amanda Dempsey, died in March. The Jackson Lab is a genetics research facility in Bar Harbour.
The award is given by the non-profit Maine Centre for Creativity, which said both recipients were honoured for their “visionary thinking and persistence in helping cancer patients” in the state.
