“We all only have so much time. It can happen to anyone. We have to find cancer earlier so the journey isn’t so difficult. That’s my hope.” —JEANNE HERTZ More than a decade later, Dr. Patel — now a thoracic surgeon at HonorHealth — met Jeanne again, this time as her physician, after she was diagnosed with lung cancer. It wasn’t until right before a Continuing Medical Education presentation — where Jeanne stood before over 100 community physicians — while reviewing Jeanne’s credentials, that Dr. Patel realized she was the woman on the magazine cover he had saved for years — and the baby in her lap was his daughter. As Jeanne and her husband, Frank, learned more about Dr. Patel’s vision for early lung cancer detection, purpose emerged. “When Jeanne first learned she had lung cancer, she knew she had been chosen for a reason,” Frank says. “She realized she had the passion and the means to help fulfill a mission that could save lives.” Together, Jeanne and Frank committed a $2 million gift to establish the Jeanne and Frank Hertz Thoracic and Cardiac Surgery Endowment, supporting HonorHealth’s Lung Nodule Program. The program accelerates diagnosis, expands navigation and increases access to screening — especially for patients who might otherwise be overlooked. The impact is already evident. Since launching, the program has helped diagnose dozens of patients with Stage I lung cancer, including a young, non-smoking woman whose journey from scan to surgery took just two and a half weeks. Inspired by the Hertz family’s generosity, their friends Jodi Pederson and Tim Beaudin have already contributed $100,000 to the endowment. Thanks to Jeanne’s legacy, more patients will be diagnosed earlier, treated faster and given more time with the people they love. It is philanthropy at its most powerful — an investment whose impact comes beautifully, meaningfully, full circle. Since launching, the Lung Nodule Program has already screened over 1,700 patients, seen 500 in clinic, biopsied approximately 300 and diagnosed more than 60 new lung cancers — all at Stage I, when treatment is most effective. HonorHealth Foundation 5
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