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Juliana Mendes Toledo
Chino, CA, USA

Born September 24th, 1924
In the village of Doze Ribeiras,
Terceira Island, Azores, Portugal

Died on September 23rd, 2009
Ontario, California, USA

 
On June 6th, 1984, at the age of 59, my mother was admitted into the City of Hope, after being diagnosed with having a cancerous tumor on her left lung. Due to my father's early retirement due to his heart attack, my mother was not eligible for Medicare and she did not have any medical insurance. That did not make any difference to the staff at City of Hope, who treated her with the best possible care that money can buy, even though she did not have any means of paying for such care. 

At that time, the chief surgeon was Dr. Benfield (I'll never forget that name) who operated on my mother and he was able to remove the tumor along with half of her left lung.  Ever since then, I have felt a great deal of gratitude towards the City of Hope and from time to time, I would either donate blood or organize blood drives to benefit the City of Hope.

I believe this tournament reflects what my dad believed in, which is that we all have the duty of sharing our gifts of time, talent and treasure whenever possible, and it is also a way for me to "pay back" a debt to City of Hope that I know I will never be able to repay.

To give you an idea the kind of person my mom is, let me share with you the story of when my mom went into the hospital for her surgery:
During that time, I was living with my parents, and the night before she was to be admitted into the hospital, she could not sleep. And when I went to bed, she was in the kitchen "with a sewing needle in her hand." I asked her if she was going to bed and she said that she was nervous and she was not sleepy, so she was going to keep busy until she got tired.

When I woke up, she was still in the kitchen with all my shirts (18) ironed and on hangers. Then she proceeded to show me where she kept things around the house, and she asked me to take her to go see some of her neighbors. That's when I realized she was not expecting to return from the hospital, and she wanted to make sure that everything and everyone was taken care of.

To this day I remember the drive from our house to the hospital. I was fighting back tears trying to tell my mom "Everything is going to be all right," but I must admit I was not very convincing since I did not know of anyone that had been diagnosed with having lung cancer and survived. These days, I still get to take her for her yearly checkups, but it is a much better drive and I actually look forward to it.

In her yearly visit in April 1999, her doctors told her "It has been 15 years since your surgery, and we feel that you are 100% recovered and you are no longer required to come in."   Thank you City of Hope!

Although my mom passed away due to complications from a hernia surgery, I still very fortunate that we were all able to enjoy her company and love for far longer than anyone expected.  I continue to feel that cancer research is a very worthy cause and  I fell that every day we are getting closer to finding a cure for this dreadful disease.