Their gift will help tomorrow’s cancer patients
Jim and Lana Daws
Every Thursday, Bryan volunteer Lana Daws spends her morning cuddling infants in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).
In the afternoon, this retired elementary school principal escorts patients and visitors around the hospital as a volunteer wayfinder.
Her husband, Jim, spends his days running Daws Trucking Incorporated, a company he established 28 years ago with two trucks. Since then, the fleet’s grown to 85 trucks that transport oversized freight like tractors and bridge beams across America.
The couple’s decades of hard work have put them “in a position where we can help people,” Jim says. “We’re happy to do that.”
In that spirit, the couple made a gift to the April Sampson Cancer Center that will support the physician/care team work room in memory of their parents, Bud and Jean Daws and Fred and Dorothy Stych.
“Any time you can take care of the people who are in the trenches taking care of patients, that’s a good opportunity,” Lana says of their decision to contribute to the work room. “Since I became a volunteer, my respect for the medical profession has become so high.”
Jim and Lana have seen friends and family endure cancer; some have beaten it (Lana’s mom survived breast cancer twice), and others who haven’t been as fortunate (such as the young man they’ve supported through the Make-A-Wish Foundation for several years, who is in hospice care).
They say their loved ones would have benefited from the new center’s centralized care and intentionally designed visitor spaces, and they emphasized the continuous role philanthropy will play in making the center a reality.
“Think about how you don’t ever want a family member to suffer,” Jim says, “and then, if possible, think about how you could help support that cause with any dollar amount.”
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