We moved to Florida and needed local medical care so we arranged an executive physical at Mayo Clinic. At the time, I suggested that maybe both of us should go through the process. She said, "Oh no, we don't need to do that." I said, "Well, just humor me." On the morning of the second day, they had found during the physical a tumor. That's when we saw Mayo operating at its best.

I got the call that it was malignant and one of the nurses stayed on the phone with me when I was hysterical, helping me just to get through my hysteria.

They had one vision in mind and that's to make her better.

I remember that we were walking on the beach one day and Dan said to me, "We need to do something to thank Mayo for the good care that you've got." And he said, "Well, what would we give it for?" And I thought, "Well, we want to give it to breast cancer, of course."

It's kind of analogous to the experience that you have as a patient with Mayo. That it's very personalized, that it's all about you. So therefore, the research should be individualized.

If our daughter, our granddaughters were to get cancer, hopefully, it can be cured immediately and there would not be this thing hanging over them that at any time it could come back. We are just very lucky. Whether you give $10 or $10,000, it's really important to further the research. Without people wanting to pay back, there will be no research.

We can't take it with us so we'd much rather have the staff that we've got to know and love at Mayo to take it and do something with it that'll be helpful to our next generations as well as to other people that need it.

Sept. 29, 2022