2012 Justin Sucato Award winner Jaren Smith
Dr. Dan Sucato, Mrs. Ilde Sucato, Wolfram Blattner
2013 Award: Mrs. Ilde (Justin) Sucato and Jay Holmes
Justin Sucato Award 2013.
Often overlooked is the value of hospital visits to survivors after surgery. I did a few visits myself and I remember one case where a survivor was in tears when I came in, not because of me but because he realized that somebody outside his family cared.
This year’s Justin Sucato award goes to a survivor who decided
to give something back after his own surgery. He has visited fellow survivors
for more than 12 years. The candidate gives a great deal of his time to volunteer
work in general. He now volunteers with Habitat for Humanity and has made
numerous trips to New Orleans to help that community rebuild. He sees himself
on equal footing with the rest of humanity and feeling blessed to be alive. He
still visits prostate cancer patients twice a month. He is always extremely
kind to the prostate cancer patients he visits and tells them, and those may be his own
words, that losing their prostate “doesn’t have to cramp their style.” He
reminds the patients that their live is full of meaning and joy post
prostatectomy. He also invites the men to the support group at Baylor.
The 2013 Justin Sucato Award goes to Jay Holmes.
