Recognize an Outstanding Caregiver: Nominations for Society's Lane Adams Award Now Open

Article date: August 30, 2011

Compassionate caregivers around the country are doing extraordinary work on the front lines of the fight against cancer. These doctors, nurses, social workers, and others offer comfort, courage, and inspiration to people facing cancer and their families.

These innovative health care professionals, who go above and beyond the call of duty every day, often are overlooked for the service they provide. That’s why former American Cancer Society Executive Vice President Lane W. Adams chose to honor these unsung heroes with an award that recognizes people for extending the “warm hand of service” to others.

The Lane Adams Quality of Life Award reflects Adams’ own service to people affected by cancer. This visionary leader, who rose to the position of executive vice president of the Society, is remembered as a driving force behind such patient service programs as Reach To Recovery®, I Can Cope®, and Road To Recovery®.

Nominations for the 2012 Lane Adams Quality of Life Award are being accepted until October 1, 2011. Honorees will be recognized at the Society’s National Board of Directors meeting in May in Atlanta.

Previous award recipients have included people like Richard L. Deming, MD, Medical Director, Mercy Cancer Center, Des Moines, Iowa, who was recognized for his commitment to assisting cancer patients even outside of working hours. As an American Cancer Society volunteer in Iowa this May, Dr. Deming led a group of cancer survivors to Mount Everest in Nepal as part of an event called “Above & Beyond: Cancer Survivors Trek to Everest,” in order to demonstrate the adversity that cancer survivors face – and how they can conquer it. This is not a man who simply talks the talk about longtime wellness and quality of life after cancer, he walks the walk.

2011 winners included a clinical nurse, oncology social workers, oncology outreach volunteer, and a nurse practitioner, among others. Read their biographies.

For more information about the Lane Adams award and for nomination forms, visit cancer.org/laneadams.

Reviewed by: Members of the ACS Medical Content Staff

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