Ed Duerr: My oldest daughter when she was nineteen had a hysterectomy she had cervical cancer, and several years ago she thought she was, she thought that it was coming back and I decided to, that I was going to research and find the finest cancer facility that I could possibly find, and pass that information on to her for her to go there. And everywhere I looked Cancer Treatment Centers Of America kept coming up. I couldn’t do any research without that name coming up, and I finally decided, “OK, I’m going to look into these folks and find out ok what, what’s their deal, what’s their story”, and I started researching the web site, I listened to many of the of the survivors videos, I read their testimonials, and my first reaction I remember sitting back in my chair at home and going, “these folks have got a great marketing department.” And then I was on the, the Metro up in DC and sitting across the car from me was a lady that had, she either had a t-shirt or a tote bag she had something that had the Cancer Treatment Centers Of America logo on it, and I walked across the car and sat down next to her and asked her if she’d mind talking to me about it because I’m trying to find a cancer facility for my daughter, and she said, “not at all, I don’t mind talking at all about it.” And I said, “I’ve done a lot of research and said I said you guys have got a great marketing department, I said this place can’t be this good can it?” And she said “actually, no it’s not it’s a lot better.” She said, “I can’t describe it to you because you won’t understand, you have to go there.” All that research was five years ago, and fortunately it was never used we never needed to; my daughters cancer has never come back. Five years later when I was diagnosed, the first thing I thought about was I need to get a second opinion and there was never a doubt in my mind where I was going to go.
Daughter: I knew whatever hospital, care facility, oncologists, my dad was comfortable with was good for me. And there were you know some friends and family who would ask the question you know, “well what about this local facility or that local facility”, he’d tell them, “I’ve looked into Cancer Treatment Centers Of America”, and he didn’t get to finish the sentence before their like nope forget it go there.
Ed Duerr: Steve was my oncology information specialist. I called and I spoke with Steve Bear, and it was like talking to my brother. It was very casual, very concerned, very caring and he made it appoint to tell me from the very beginning that whatever direction I choose to go, it’s what I choose to do and not what some doctor or some facility chooses for me, that I am the one directing what happens to me and where my treatment goes and what that treatment is. And I brought the subject up with Steve, I said that Tulsa Okalahoma is a long ways and that’s quite an expensive trip, and to my surprise he said that’s not a problem we will send you the airline ticket.