Tommye Barie and Pam Stanford
Share this:
When Pamela Stanford’s husband, Jack, was diagnosed with stage 4 esophageal cancer in 2007, doctors at a North Carolina hospital suggested she take him home and make him comfortable.
“That infuriated me,” Pamela says.
Not ready to give up, Pamela decided to reach out to Mayo Clinic in Florida. She filled out a form for Jack to become a patient and hoped for the best. Then the phone rang.
“One of the most important phone calls you get is Mayo Clinic saying, ‘We’ll accept you as a patient,’” Pamela says. “It was life changing.”
Doctors at Mayo Clinic were direct — Jack was very sick — but they gave the Stanfords hope and direction. Jack’s treatment would include chemotherapy and radiation at home in North Carolina, along with regular checkups at Mayo Clinic.
One of the most important phone calls you get is Mayo Clinic saying, 'We’ll accept you as a patient.' It was life changing.
— PAMELA STANFORD
“I received treatment too, from the standpoint that it kept me sane, kept me grounded,” Pamela says. “To know someone had our back, it was great.”
In April 2008, Jack was among the first patients to have surgery in the newly opened Mayo Clinic Hospital in Florida. The cancer surgery was successful, and Jack lived for 10 years after his diagnosis under the care of Mayo Clinic.
Another Diagnosis
During the worst of Jack’s illness, Pamela’s biggest supporter was her sister, Tommye Barie. Tommye, a Florida resident, joined Pamela at Mayo Clinic for Jack’s surgery.
“I knew the caliber of care he was getting,” Tommye says.
Tommye, a certified public accountant, returned to Mayo Clinic in 2014 — this time as a patient. On a friend’s recommendation, she joined the Mayo Clinic Executive Health Program, which provides individualized, comprehensive care to full-time working executives through timely, coordinated access to multidisciplinary providers.
In 2015, Tommye began to experience brief debilitating headaches. She contacted the Executive Health Program, which connected her with a Mayo Clinic headache specialist. A brain scan found a tumor. With Pamela and Jack on hand for support, Tommye had a craniotomy at Mayo Clinic to remove the mass.
“All you can do is turn it over to the experts and pray,” says Pamela, who now trusted Mayo Clinic with two of the most important people in her life. “I knew Jack and Tommye were in the best hands possible.”
Tommye’s surgery confirmed her tumor was a benign hemangioblastoma. She was home from the hospital within three days.
Jack, who had built a successful insurance brokerage and real estate company and was instrumental in the growth of the Make-A-Wish Foundation, passed away in 2017.
Giving Back
Last year, before her appointment, Tommye strolled the Mayo Clinic campus. She found herself engrossed in a display showcasing The Mayo Legacy, a program for patients, staff and benefactors who have included Mayo Clinic in their estate plans. Tommye thought The Mayo Legacy might be an option for her.
When Tommye returned to the Sarasota condominium she and Pamela now call home — their residences are one floor apart — she told her sister about the inspiring benefactor stories she read. As it happens, Pamela had been considering becoming a benefactor herself.
Since Jack’s surgery, Pamela had been inspired by Mayo Clinic’s groundbreaking medical research program. “We wanted to give somewhere that would truly make a difference in people’s lives,” she says.
Tommye says her confidence in Mayo Clinic’s fiscal responsibility made her decision to give an easy one. “It just felt like the right thing to do,” she says.
When the sisters decided, independently, to become benefactors, they felt a weight lift from their shoulders. “We wanted to do something meaningful with what we worked so hard for,” Tommye says.