Syracuse, NY – Upstate Medical University announced on Tuesday more plans to expand by unveiling the site of their new cancer center.
The $74 million, five-story project is set to break ground in March of next year. The cancer center will be built on the site occupied by Upstate’s current Oncology Center and a parking lot. It will wrap around the Oncology center and connect to the University hospital.
Upstate Cancer Center from Newhouse BDJ on Vimeo
The new center will bring all of Upstate’s cancer services into the same venue. The project will be 100% privately funded through bonds and fundraising. Upstate will kick off its fundraising campaign on December 11th with its annual gala. They hope to raise $15 million in donations which would match the total they received for the Golisano Children’s Hospital, which opened last year.
The Syracuse based non-profit Centerstate CEO is one of several groups donating to the project. Centerstate representative Matthew Capogreco, a cancer survivor, is proud of the new cancer center on both a personal and professional level. Capogreco thinks Upstate’s new facilities will be extremely beneficial to the community.
“I’m very familiar with the cancer centers from across the country,” said Capogreco. “We’re talking DC. New York City. Boston. Mayo Clinic. People from here have to travel quite a ways when it comes to certain types of cancer and now they won’t have to. That’s wonderful.”
Maureen Knopp worked at Upstate for over four decades before being diagnosed with cancer in 1994. Over the past 16 years, she has suffered from 8 primary types of cancer. Knopp is incredibly grateful towards the treatment she has received at Upstate but is also excited about the opportunities a new cancer center will bring.
“It’s very exciting,” Knopp said. It’ll be so wonderful to have a modern facility, not a patchwork bit of things. It’s so much easier on the patients and the families who have questions. What does this mean? What’s going to happen to me? That sort of anxiety will be relieved by being able to have a lot of the answers given at the same time.”
“Patients will know they matter. You’re not just a number. You’re not just a disease. But you’re a person. You’re going to need moral support. You’re going to need to go in and buy yourself a new hat or wig.”
Karen Hartnett watched her 19-year old son Rick battle lymphoma. She spent the past 10 years in and out of Upstate Medical University. Hartnett believes that the new cancer center will be boost for not only the community, but families dealing with the illness.
“For a facility to recognize that what these kids want and what these families want is just to be normal,” said Hartnett. “To do things other people are doing and to keep their lives together the best they can.”
Upstate hopes to have the new cancer center completed by early 2013.
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