Ted Turner is an American media mogul and philanthropist. As a businessman, he is known as founder of the cable news network CNN, the first dedicated 24-hour cable news channel. He famously married actress Jane Fonda in 1991, they divorced in 2001.

When he was a teenager, his younger sister Mary Jane aged contracted a form of lupus, and suffered terribly before dying a relatively short while later aged just 17.

In 2001 the Turner Foundation gave $1 million to lupus research in the USA. He said “Lupus is a serious and sometimes deadly challenge affecting young people and their families. The Turner Foundation is pleased to help combat this terrible disease by making a contribution to research directed at a better understanding of the cause and treatment of this disease in children and teens.”