A word from the president
Summer 2014 : iPromise: Jan Levit
iPromise
Jan Levit Silver, of Bellaire, Texas, is an executive vice president for Grocers Supply Co. Inc. Jan has been an MD Anderson patient and serves as an associate member of the MD Anderson Cancer Center Board of Visitors. Jan's late father, Milton Levit, was a BOV member, and her uncle, Max Levit, is a senior BOV member. Generous donations from the Levit family support the Joe and Dora Levit MRI Center and the Levit Family Learning Center at MD Anderson.
Photo courtesy of Jan Levit Silver.
"Thirteen years ago, I came to MD Anderson for a second opinion for what appeared to be a benign cyst on my right breast. Our close family friend, Dr. Sid Wallace, a respected radiologist at MD Anderson at the time, had encouraged me to repeat the mammogram and ultrasounds with the institution’s more powerfully accurate machines, expert technicians and world-renowned radiologists.
It became quickly evident that the cyst was not benign. I was sent from the ultrasound to the MRI center. When I went into the waiting room, I saw the silver letters "Joe and Dora Levit MRI Center" and felt a flood of relief and comfort, knowing that I was going to be fine. While I knew our family, spearheaded by my father and uncle, Milton and Max Levit, had recently donated funds for the MRI center in honor of my grandparents, we had not yet visited. It still amazes me that I was one of the first beneficiaries of the MRI center bearing my grandparents’ names. I’m extremely grateful for the early and accurate detection and for the successful treatment and wonderful care I received.
That year, I arranged for the MD Anderson mammography van to come to our family company, Grocers Supply. We now have three vans visit every year because of high participation rates. Thanks to this screening, a number of our employees have received further evaluation and successful treatment due to early detection at MD Anderson, just as I had.
It’s amazing how much impact one small act of generosity can have, and how it can happen as close as your own back yard."
Do you promise? Tell us why you’re committed to Making Cancer History® by sending an email to Promise@mdanderson.org.
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