Full disclosure also means I need to talk about Walking with Jane’s ties to the four organizations that raise money either directly from us or through us. These organizations will not gain an advantage over others in my reporting on the Business of Cancer here over the next several days. Those of you who know me know they will be held to a higher standard than anyone else will be because I will fight my biases toward them by being even more critical of the places they make missteps.
The first of these groups is the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. Our relationship with them began in September of 2010 when Jane became a patient of Dr. Jennifer Chan shortly after we got Jane’s diagnosis. We did not get home until 8:30 that night and, exhausted by the day’s events, had immediately crawled into bed. We were talking when the phone rang about 8:45. It was Jen. She’d had some ideas since we left that evening and couldn’t wait to share them with us. When I hung up the phone Jane and I both dissolved into tears–we were so glad to have met someone that caring.
Jen was a rock for us both in the days and months ahead. She came in to visit Jane on Thanksgiving morning even though it was her day off. And on the day Jane died she came by at noon–skipping her lunch to be with us. She told me as she left that she would be seeing patients all afternoon–but while her body would be there, her heart would be with us. She had a tear in her eye as she said it.
Jen was not the only person there who went out of their way for us. Dr. Javid Moslehi became Jane’s cardiologist. Like Jen, he made regular trips to visit even when he was off. Both he and Jen have helped make sure the medical stuff I write here is accurate.
The nurses at both Dana-Farber and Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Dr. Couper–her heart surgeon–the interns, the residents, the intensivists, the technicians, the chaplains, the social workers…did all they could for both of us–physically and emotionally.
The people and the place will always hold a special place in my heart–not because of the building or how it was equipped–but because of the way the people treated everyone as a human being deserving of love and affection and the best possible treatment.
Perhaps there are other places that deliver the same level of care and love–but this was the place we were.
Dana-Farber’s decision to move forward to establish a national center for research on NET and CS n the wake of Jane’s death pushed me to increase my involvement with them . The result is the Walking with Jane Dybowski Fund for NEC Education and Research at Dana-Farber. I have pledged to raise a minimum of $20,000 a year for five years in support of their efforts to cure this disease and make primary care physicians aware of what it is and what they have to do to detect it.
Last year, just over $23,000 in contributions were made in Jane’s memory directly to Dana-Farber. An additional $4500 arrived there through another group.
(Tomorrow: the American Cancer Society and the Relay for Life of Greater Fall River)
