UPDATE APRIL 17, 2024: TEAM BIG COOKIE is being continued in Neal's memory.  Patrick Neal Cook, 55, passed away on April 15th with his children, wife and parents at his bedside.  

Neal was a warrior, having endured multiple surgeries, rounds of chemotherapy and radiation treatments since his original diagnosis with a brain tumor in 2010, all while raising a young family and continuing to practice law full time.   Neal served on the Board of Advisors for the Preseton Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center at Duke and actively raised funds through participation in the Center’s annual Angels Among Us events.  In addition to his own battle against the disease, Neal served as a navigator and confidant to dozens of other patients diagnosed with brain tumors, often serving as an initial resource for a newly diagnosed patient.  Many of those patients became close personal friends.    

The family thanks his care team at The Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center at Duke for serving as Neal’s comrades in arms against his brain tumor diagnosis.  The family is also incredibly grateful to the expansive network of friends who made sure that Neal’s last months of life were filled with gatherings to enjoy good food, to cheer for Carolina basketball and to revisit cherished memories.   Despite its challenges, Neal enjoyed a blessed life.