Cancer Center Special Report

Cancer Survivor Gives Back

One-and-a-half months – that’s how long Dennis Bush was told he had to live.

Diagnosed with advanced mantle cell lymphoma in early 2004, Dennis, partner in Insight Development Group, LLC, faced certain death unless he pursued immediate treatment. He decided to fight back. With the help of the experts at Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin, Dennis beat his cancer.

Today, he’s excited about work, enjoying life and enthusiastically giving back to the hospital he credits with saving his life.

Dennis first woke with pain on December 24, 2003. After extensive testing, he was referred to Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin where Janet Hosenpud, MD, Medical College of Wisconsin medical oncologist, told him he had cancer.

“Based solely on chemistry, I asked Janet to be my doctor,” Dennis recalls. “She told me her specialty was breast cancer, but I didn’t care. She said she was happy to be my doctor using the full resources of the Cancer Center and the consultant approach of the entire team.”

Over the next two years, Dennis came to appreciate the Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin team approach as he pursued an aggressive course of treatment that included eight months of intensive chemotherapy followed by a stem cell transplant. “I met with a number of doctors and the doctor group discussed at length at least four times my condition, circumstances and best direction for treatment,” Dennis says. Ultimately, he decided to undergo a donor stem cell transplant and in October 2004, received stem cells from his sister.

During treatment, Dennis “learned of other studies, great work and possible future directions for the Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin cancer programs. I knew I had to help,” he says. In September 2005, Dennis and Froedtert hosted the first annual Drive Fore a Cure golf outing at Hidden Glen Country Club in Cedarburg. The event was a great success, raising significant funds for the Froedtert & Medical College of Wisconsin Cancer Center. The second annual outing is already scheduled for July 2006.

Dennis also mentors new cancer patients and he is a life patron of the hospital. It’s an investment of time and money he finds very worthwhile. “I want the Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin cancer treatment experience to be the best in the United States,” Dennis says. “We need a world-class cancer center and Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin is taking on this great challenge by crafting one. The new Cancer Pavilion will bring some of the best minds and practices to our area.”

For more information about Drive Fore a Cure, or to inquire about other donation opportunities, contact Meghan Lodes, director of development, Medical College of Wisconsin Cancer Center at 414-456-4719 or mllodes@mcw.edu.

Source: Cancer Center Special Report 2005/06