In a twin celebration of determination and compassion, the care team at St. Tammany Cancer Center – A Campus of Ochsner Medical Center hosted local cancer patients and their families Thursday for Cancer Patient Appreciation Day, a festive event featuring music, food and fellowship.
“I’m grateful to be here,” said blues musician Amedee Frederick, a five-year pancreatic cancer patient whose family band provided the music for the day. “What a wonderful staff. I can’t say enough about the staff and all the doctors. This whole thing is about surviving and carrying on and living a good, productive life. So, thank you.”
Officially, the theme of the day was “Celebrating You,” but, unofficially, gratitude was also in ample supply Thursday, as the cancer center’s care providers expressed thanks to patients and vice-versa.
“It is my honor to thank all of you,” St. Tammany Health System President and CEO Joan Coffman told those caregivers and patients in attendance. “We appreciate the work that you do, we appreciate the journey that you’re on, we appreciate the resilience and the grit that you have demonstrated in navigating this journey and want you to know we’re here with you to celebrate you.”
Coffman went on to note that Thursday’s event was a true community celebration, with well more than a dozen local businesses and groups playing a role. In addition to support from St. Tammany Hospital Foundation, they included: Winn-Dixie, Double D Sausage, Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry, Hilton Garden Inn Covington/Mandeville, Stone Creek Club and Spa, Coca-Cola, Fidelity Bank, Blue Bell Creameries, Maddy Golf, Aveda Institute, All American Medical, Bionic Babes, Pierre Fabre, LMNT, Good Clean Love, Orgain, Abbott and Mele Printing.
Scroll down for more images from Thursday’s event.
St. Tammany Health System’s cancer care program started in earnest in 1998. In 2014, the health system entered into a strategic partnership with Ochsner Health that resulted in, among other things, the expansion of cancer services at St. Tammany Cancer Center, then located in a Covington facility across South Tyler Street from St. Tammany Health System’s flagship St. Tammany Parish Hospital.
In June 2021, STHS and Ochsner cut the ribbon on the current cancer center, a $50 million, 75,000-square-foot, purpose-built facility on Ochsner’s Covington campus near the intersection of Interstate 12 and Louisiana 21.
Learn more about the cancer center at NorthshoreCancerCare.org.