Tuesday, July 19, 2016
Buildings are often named after people to pay tribute to their achievements. Such was the case when we were in the early stages of planning a condominium building at 318 West Liberty - a building now nearing completion - and my husband Alex suggested "The Mark."
For us, it was personal. Fourteen years ago, Dr. Mark Kaminski, Director of the Multidisciplinary Lymphoma Clinic at The University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center, saved my life.
But it was more than that. Dr. Kaminski is one of the most highly respected lymphoma experts in the world. His medical expertise and his development of a life-saving treatment for non-Hodgkin lymphoma has saved thousands of lives.
My illness introduced me to scientists and doctors who, like Dr. Kaminski, devote their lives to making ours betters, and they do it with little recognition.
Day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, they go about the enormously difficult task of unraveling the mysteries of cancer.
Their work often seems painstakingly slow, but they are making great strides. Today, there are more than 15.5 million survivors and the number is growing.
We are living and loving because cancer researchers fiercely drive progress forward, finding new and better ways to treat and to prevent cancer.
Some of the very best are right here in Ann Arbor. Not surprisingly, Dr. Kaminski tops our list!
Those of us who know Dr. Kaminski know that he's a humble man who is far more devoted to his patients than he is interested in accolades, but he has given many of us the chance to live healthy lives after cancer.
We are living proof of his extraordinary accomplishments, and the mere naming of a building can't begin to express the gratitude that so many of us feel.
But it can shine a light on the relentless pursuit of improving, prolonging and saving lives that he and others at the University of Michigan are making every day.
And that, we believe, is worthy of awareness, recognition and appreciation however it can be made.
- Betsy de Parry, VP Sales and Marketing