The Mario Lemieux Foundation was created in 1993 by hockey legend Mario Lemieux. In that year, Mario was enjoying the greatest season of his brilliant career and on pace to establish a new NHL scoring record. Then he was diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease.
After a successful battle with Hodgkin's, Mario is now twelve years cancer free and his experience led him to focus on ways to assist those not so fortunate. He devotes much of his time to the Foundation raising funds to help reach the ultimate goal: a cure for cancer.

The main objective of the Mario Lemieux Foundation is to fund promising medical research projects being conducted by talented scientists. Among the donations made by the Foundation was a five million dollar gift to the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center to establish the Mario Lemieux Centers for Patient Care and Research in 2001 and a two million dollar gift to the Children's Home of Pittsburgh in 2005.

The Mario Lemieux Foundation has also established the Austin Lemieux Neonatal Research Project, in honor of Mario and Nathalie Lemieux's healthy son who was born prematurely. This grant supports research at Magee-Womens Hospital, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in their Division of Neonatology and Developmental Biology.

Additionally, the Lemieux Foundation supports other organizations such as the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine, the Leukemia Society, the Lupus Foundation and the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh.