Wolfson Children's Hospital in Jacksonville, Florida, has announced a $5 million gift from the Lucy Gooding Charitable Foundation Trust to establish a pediatric neurosurgery center.

The gift, the largest in the hospital's fifty-year history, will support the development of the Lucy Gooding Children's Neurosurgery Center. Establishing the center has been a longtime goal of the hospital, which recruited pediatric neurosurgeon Hector James in 2003 and charged him with developing a neurosurgery program to treat children born with a range of diseases and conditions, including Spina bifida, epilepsy, brain tumors, craniosynostosis, and spasticity. The gift from the trust will be used to support the recruiting of additional neurosurgeons and clinicians, integrating new technology, and developing a research and education component for the program.

"The effect this gift will have on our patients is incredible," said Hugh Greene, president and CEO of Baptist Health of Northeast Florida, Wolfson's parent organization. "It will allow us to expand our circle of care, offering much needed services to children in our city and region."

The Gooding Trust was established in 1988 by Lucy B. Gooding, whose husband, Henry Gooding, was a founder and president of the Independent Life and Accident Insurance Company. Its mission is to provide funds to organizations that provide services directly to children and to provide relief services to the community as a whole.