Jerry Harty and Jon Durham
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In June 2020, Jerry Harty was diagnosed by a local provider in Michigan with an extremely rare and lethal neuroendocrine cancer. He was told that most patients with this type of carcinoma die within 2 to 3 years of diagnosis. Due to its rarity, there was little available literature and no standard treatment protocol, and it was the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Jerry and his husband, Jon Durham, needed a team that knew how to fight. They left their home in Kalamazoo and drove the eight hours to Rochester, Minnesota, where Mayo Clinic’s care team was ready and waiting.
They met Thor Halfdanarson, M.D., an oncologist at Mayo Clinic, who is the former president of the North American Neuroendocrine Tumor Society. He proposed an aggressive combination of chemotherapy and radiation therapy.
Jerry (on the left in the photo) says the assurance and compassion of his multidisciplinary care team gave him hope throughout the process.
The care and communication from Mayo to us was excellent. It’s powerful the way the teams work together. I felt them fighting for Jerry’s life.
— JON DURHAM
“Cancer is scary enough — and then you add COVID on top of that,” says Jerry. “I never saw my care team’s faces because of the masks, but they were able to build trust in other ways. Their confidence, determination and teamwork were phenomenal. The model that Mayo has should be the model that everyone tries to emulate.”
“The care and communication from Mayo to us was excellent,” Jon adds. “I never felt uncomfortable. It’s powerful the way the teams work together. I felt them fighting for Jerry’s life.”
Jerry remains in remission today and is enjoying time in Michigan and California with Jon, as well as hobbies such as sculpting glass art. One of his pieces hangs in Dr. Halfdanarson’s office, a reminder of his success story.
Recently, Jerry and Jon made a generous undesignated planned gift. Undesignated gifts help ensure that Mayo Clinic can invest in critical initiatives quickly and decisively to have a real-time impact on patients’ needs. Jerry and Jon are recognized as members of The Mayo Legacy for including Mayo Clinic in their estate plan.
“We wanted to do something to say thank you,” Jon says. “This is meaningful for us not only because they cured Jerry’s cancer, but also because of the way they brought us through the journey. They listened, they participated, they fought. Our gift is undesignated because we want to help Mayo keep doing what they are doing.”