Â鶹ӳ»­

I think everyone's been touched by a personal story with cancer. My family has had various cases of cancer, but the one that affected me most was my aunt, Francesca. She was a nurse in Zurich, Switzerland, had two beautiful boys, had all the means in the world but died of breast cancer. That was a very real moment and it propelled me to look at the research side of what was happening in cancer, to see what little I could do to help support frontier research efforts. 

When I moved to the States, I asked some friends who were earning doctorates in oncology "which are the institutions that are pioneering the way in cancer research and really making the biggest impact? Is it in the United States or is it outside? And if it is, can you point out a couple?" MD Anderson was one at the top of the list that kept coming up. I had never heard of it before, and I'd never even visited Texas, but I took the reference seriously and decided to donate an initial contribution in Francesca's name to MD Anderson in the area of breast cancer.

I was blown away by the scale of the institution. Everyone says that everything is bigger in Texas, and I think this is very true of the cancer center and the resources at play. What I was trying to focus on and what I was really looking for was someone to guide me to where I could best put my limited money to work - make the biggest impact. I didn't want to donate to a general area. I wanted to focus on what could move the needle. When I made it out to Texas to visit the institution and saw the scale of the operations and all the different areas to which I could contribute, I realized the importance of focusing my efforts. Melissa Brasher and the Development Office have been wonderful in informing me and helping me channel my yearly gifts.

I think as we start to live longer, more and more people will be affected by cancer. It's really a human issue that affects the whole population, whether it's your family, you directly or someone you know. Look at the data and you'll see that you'll eventually be touched by it if you haven't been already. We really need to work to understand how the body operates, how it interacts with the process of aging, with disease, and all these different areas to grow our general understanding of cancer and how we can prevent it from occurring. The more you understand cancer, the more you know the word is more of a catch-all phrase for a huge amount of different kind of disease states that are all very individual. To me it seems like the biggest fight in health for the juman population going forward. It really affects everyone, and young people might not feel it straight away. Just to start understanding it by being involved helps educate us, fuels our passion to gain more knowledge about it as we move on with life.

It amazes me that an institution as massive as MD Anderson and the impact that it has in the global fight to end cancer is not as known as it should be. I look forward to seeing how MD Anderson's impact expands - nationally and internationally - to get the recognition it deserves.