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Quick Facts:
Lebanon
Friday, June 6, is National Cancer Survivors Day, and Mercy Hospital Lebanon will host its first celebratory event to honor cancer survivors and family, friends and loved ones affected by cancer.
The event is being organized by Mercy Health Foundation Lebanon’s Women with a Mission to share love and hope with cancer survivors while also spreading awareness of the Curry Cancer Center.
Lee Ann Pendergraft, who chairs Friday’s event, is the director of finance at Mercy Hospital Lebanon and a member of Women with a Mission. “So many of us have had friends and family touched by cancer,” she said.” As Lebanon natives, we know how blessed we are to have the Curry Cancer Center here in town to care for cancer patients and meet their wide range of needs. When Women with a Mission was brainstorming this idea, we wanted to do something that would spread hope and education about the amazing resources available here in our own community.”
Thanks to the generous support of the Curry family, the Curry Cancer Center opened in 2008 and cares for hundreds of cancer patients each year. In 2024 alone, 737 patients received vital care at the center. As a community resource, the center is available to all patients, not just those being treated by a Mercy doctor. That means non-Mercy provider referrals are accepted at the Curry Cancer Center, and patients can see their oncologist, receive chemotherapy and immunotherapy treatments, get lab work done and much more.
To celebrate National Cancer Survivors Day on June 6, Pendergraft and the rest of the Women with a Mission team will be at the Curry Cancer Center,100 Hospital Drive in Lebanon. Visitors will be treated to surprises in the parking lot from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and there will be free ice cream from the Ice Cream Factory for those that drive-thru thanks to support from Jaiden Schmitz at Edward Jones.
At noon, community partners from the Lebanon area will join in a citywide bell ringing and prayer to remember, honor and celebrate all those affected by cancer. “It is heartwarming to know we have so many community partners who will join us in the bell ringing at noon,” said Karen Simpson-Neasby, executive director of Mercy Health Foundation Lebanon. “We’ll be joined by Lebanon High School, First United Methodist Church, Trinity Episcopal Church, First Christian Church and the Lebanon High School Alumni Association. Plus, the mayor is making a proclamation that Friday is national cancer survivor’s day.”
Like so many people who will be at Friday’s event, Simpson-Neasby is a cancer survivor herself. “Cancer is a tough journey, and so many people walk through it alone,” she said. “I hope this event send the message that no one has to go through cancer alone. Our community is here to support you.”
