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New Cancer Center Will Have Radiation Therapy Capability

Posted on: Friday, 28 October 2005, 18:01 CDT

By Mark Havnes, The Salt Lake Tribune

Oct. 28--CEDAR CITY -- Sandra L. Maxwell started wearing this week a lapel pin of an angel with the word "love" inscribed on it.

The cancer survivor was given the decoration by a Cedar City resident during groundbreaking ceremonies Tuesday for a new cancer-treatment center to be named after Maxwell.

"He told me his wife, who died from cancer, wore the pin while she was undergoing treatment, and he wanted me to have it," said Maxwell. "It is such a touching thing for me."

The decision to name the new 5,000 square-foot southwestern Utah facility the Sandra L. Maxwell Cancer Treatment Center was made by the Leavitt-Group Enterprises Inc., where Maxwell has worked since 1967 and which earned naming rights to the new building after pledging $200,000 toward its construction.

The company is owned by the family of former Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt, who currently is Secretary of Health and Human Services. In fact, she said, at one time she used to baby-sit Leavitt and his brothers.

"It's just fabulous," said Maxwell describing the new center on Thursday.

The $2.8 million cancer center will be built by Valley View Medical Center adjacent to the Cedar City facility it opened in 2003.

The hospital has been working for two years to raise half the construction price. The other half was paid for by Intermountain Health Care, which owns and operates Valley View.

Maxwell, an administrative assistant for her company, not only beat one round of melanoma cancer, but helped initiate an employee-contribution program to help raise the Leavitt-Group's construction pledge. The firm is asking that its more than 1,000 employees in 13 states donate a half-hour of work from their biweekly pay checks.

So far the workers have raised $100,000 of the pledge and expect to have the rest in just over a year.

"[Cedar City] has always been a giving community when the need is there," said Maxwell. "It has always pulled together."

The addition of the new treatment center will provide space for radiation treatments. That means patients no longer will have to travel to St. George or the Wasatch Front to receive the procedure.

The new center also will make Cedar City more attractive to those considering relocating.

"There's probably not a company or family that doesn't look at health services in a community before making a move," said Valley View spokesman Harry Brown.

For Maxwell, the center will not only have her name on it, but it means she will not have to travel to Salt Lake City every five months to undergo radiation treatment for an early form of the melanoma that she beat once.

She said the prospect of seeing her name attached to the building is humbling.

"It makes you want to be careful not to do anything to tarnish your name," she laughed. "It is amazing that just a regular, common person like myself can receive such an honor, and I thank all those responsible."

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Copyright (c) 2005, The Salt Lake Tribune

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Source: The Salt Lake Tribune

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