It’s not brick and mortar that makes a good medical center, cancer survivor David Aresty says, but the ideas and workings within the med center walls.
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Patti and David Aresty, second and third from left, respectively, signed a cancer research fund agreement on Friday. They were in Nebraska with their children, Adam (fifth from left), Rachel (next to Adam) and Ben (seated, left). They are pictured with Rho and Gene Blanchard (on each side of the Aresty parents) and Charlotte and Jamie Williams and their two children (at right). |
That’s one reason why Aresty and his wife signed the David and Patti Aresty Cancer Research Fund Agreement on Friday to complete their $500,000 gift, which supports novel research and established the Aresty Lounge in the Lied Transplant Center at UNMC. They signed the fund agreement at the Lied center, in the second-floor lounge that bears their name.
“We hope that through these funds, truly remarkable cancer treatments will be discovered,” David Aresty said. “Certainly, I wouldn’t be here today if it weren’t for the research that takes place at UNMC.”
A partner in Alfred Dunner, Inc., a women’s clothing manufacturer and distributor, Aresty was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma at age 31. His disease had spread and was in his right armpit, chest, liver and spleen.
Aresty’s oncologist in Morristown, N.J., knew about the outstanding reputation of James O. Armitage, M.D., now dean of the UNMC College of Medicine and the oncologist who started UNMC’s bone marrow transplant program in 1983. The only knowledge Aresty had of Nebraska before his cancer treatment was that his brother, Jeffrey, was a 1980 graduate of the UNMC College of Pharmacy.
David Aresty received an autologous bone marrow transplant at UNMC on April 10, 1989. He has been in good health since his recovery following the transplant.
“The doctors and nurses in Nebraska are care givers in the truest sense of the word,” Aresty said. “I cannot say enough or do enough to thank them.”
On Friday, the Arestys were joined by their children, Adam, Rachel and Ben. They also were amongst family friends as they signed the fund agreement.
Those friends included former Nebraska tight end Jamie Williams and his family, as well as Rho and Gene Blanchard, whose daughter, Carmen, underwent a transplant at the same time as David Aresty. When both patients were in isolation following their transplants, they became good friends, as did Rho Blanchard and Patti Aresty, who stayed in Omaha throughout their loved ones’ treatments. Carmen died in June 1993 from the complications related to her cancer.
Williams, meantime, met David Aresty about three years ago in San Francisco, where the former all-Big 8 tight end played for several years with the NFL’s 49ers. Since then, Aresty and Williams have developed a close personal friendship. The Arestys’ son, Adam, also interned for Williams’ company, YMotion Media Inc., this past year in San Francisco.