CHARLESTON, W.Va. — For a decade, cancer patients from across the Kanawha Valley and all over the state have been getting treatment at the CAMC Cancer Center.
The cancer center was opened in 2015 at the site of the former Watt Powell Park in Kanawha City, where Charleston’s minor league baseball teams played for decades up until the early 2000’s.
While CAMC officials were speaking at the podium during a formal anniversary ceremony Tuesday, Lisa West, a patient who had been going to the center for treatment since May, stole the attention of several people in attendance when she rang the bell signaling she was cancer free. It was a poetic moment that came at the perfect time.
“It’s an amazing feeling,” West told MetroNews after she rang the bell. “When I walked in here day one, I didn’t think I’d be here today.”
“I’m supposed to be here ringing that bell today,” she said.
West says the staff from doctors, to nurses, all the way to the front door attendant have made this trial doable.
“The journey, because of this place, is amazing. These are the most amazing people. They make this journey so tolerable,” West said.
“They’ve helped tremendously. Mentally, physically, it helps you. These people are amazing. Even for the ones that have never walked in these shoes, you would never know they didn’t walk in these shoes. That’s the care and concern that they have here,” she continued.
Before the cancer center was opened, services for CAMC were performed in tight, less than ideal spaces. At one point, the cancer facility was across from the University of Charleston baseball field. After that, services were moved to a medical office building.
“It was dreary, candidly,” Vandalia Health President and CEO Dave Ramsey said.
President and CEO of CAMC hospitals Dr. Glenn Crotty says it’s hard to believe that patients have been receiving this next level of care for a decade now.
“It seems like it just opened a couple of weeks ago and here we are 10 years later advancing care for our community,” Crotty said.
Like West and thousands of others that have stepped foot inside the cancer center, Ramsey knows how special the people inside the building truly are.
“If you’ve never been a patient, it’s hard to fully appreciate how welcoming the environment, how you can go to one place for a lot of your cancer treatment,” Ramsey said.
“Miracles are performed every day. If you’ve not been a patient, I hope you never come into this place, but if you do, I think you’ll find that it’s the right place.”