Anne Hartupee and her late husband, John, were living in Pacific, Missouri, in 2013 when he was diagnosed with cancer at an area hospital. However, they thought it best to get a second opinion from the Alvin J. Siteman Cancer Center and decided to continue treatment there.
“They took care of him for two years at Siteman and Barnes-Jewish Hospital, and we were just always so impressed,” Anne says. “It was not just with the medical care itself but just what a personal interest everybody took in our experience. It was more than just doctors and nurses and social workers. You could tell they really, really cared.”
Anne says she continues to hear similar reactions from others.
“I have a really close friend whose husband has cancer. Now she’s walking the same road that I traveled, and she has the same things to say.”
Before John passed away in 2015, the couple agreed that they wanted to honor the Siteman team while helping future cancer patients. As a result, they chose to make a legacy gift to The Foundation for Barnes-Jewish Hospital that will support cancer programs at Siteman. The gift will be made from the couple’s trust after Anne’s lifetime.
“It evolved from wanting to pay it forward for the next group,” Anne says. “It seemed like the right thing to do.”
Anne, who volunteered with BJC Hospice before moving to Georgia, believes that every generation has an obligation to pay it forward, particularly when people have significant blessings in their lives.
“You don’t necessarily look at the way things end; you look at how you experienced the whole part of that journey,” she says. “That’s why John and I ended up making the legacy gift. There’s a lot of hope in leaving something like that.”