Just about everyone ends up being touched by cancer in some way. Even those lucky enough to never be diagnosed with some form of the disease are very likely to be related by blood, marriage or social ties to at least a few people afflicted.
Those who have been touched by cancer, personally or through a friend or relative – which is to say just about everyone – are all too well aware of the insult inflicted by the inconvenience of treatment that is added to the injury of the disease.
Thanks to a major fundraising effort, which raised about a third of the needed money, a new $60 million cancer treatment center is to be open in a matter of weeks on the campus of the Upper Chesapeake Medical Center in Bel Air. It is named for the husband and wife who gave a substantial sum of the donated money for the project and is to be called the Patricia D. and M. Scot Kaufman Cancer Center.
It would be nice to live a long and healthy life and never have to see the inside of the facility, but odds are most of us will end up there at some point, either for treatment or to visit or accompany a friend or family member being treated.
It's not a particularly comforting thought, but the close proximity of the facility will help to take a bit of the sting out of the unpleasant realities of cancer treatment.
The new Kaufman Cancer Center is a place no one wants to have to visit, but it's good to know a top rate treatment center is so much closer to homes in Harford County.