CityView Magazine

CityViewNC.com | 53 said longtime resident Betty Grady, sitting in the radiation oncology waiting room. ose who have been at the center nearly from the beginning say it's always been that way. It's always been about the patients. "I feel like at times that it's a ministry," said Gwendolyn McLeod, a radiation RN who first began working at Cape Fear Valley in 1979 as an LPN. "It's more than a job; it's a calling." "You feel like you are doing something worthwhile," she said. "e patients make you feel that, had you not been here, their journey would not have been as tolerable. is is the best place I've ever worked. I love my job and my co-workers." Jamye Arnette began working at Cape Fear Valley in 1984, back when a cancer diagnosis most oen required a hospital admittance and in-patient treatment. She was a charge nurse and assistant patient care manager on the sixth floor when the cancer center first opened and Cape Fear Valley's first medical oncologist, Dr. Kamal Bakri, asked her to work there. "When Jamye and I started, the Cancer Center had four chairs and one bed," said Mary Kulig, a Fayetteville native who returned home to work in chemotherapy infusion and is now Corporate Director of Medical Oncology. "It was very, very small but there was plenty of room for us. en we expanded to eight chairs and that seemed like a lot. at feeling lasted about a month." Today, the medical oncology side of the center can accommodate more than 20 patients at a time for chemotherapy infusions. It also offers a separate room for support infusions, such as for boosts in hydration. Dr. Bakri retired last year, and Dr. Kenneth Manning now serves as medical director. Meanwhile, on the also-busy radiation oncology side, Dr. Hugh Bryan is still in the position he's held since 1982. at's when a group of Fayetteville doctors and friends from his days at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill asked Bryan to come down and give them advice on the radiation oncology department they were planning to open. Bryan was then an assistant professor of radiation therapy at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Bryan ended up moving his family here and staying. Bryan is the one who helped spread the word about the department and was also the one who brought Bakri aboard to start the medical oncology department, making Cape Fear Valley a place for comprehensive cancer treatment for the first time. Radiation therapist Brian Boyle, who joined the team 25 years ago from upstate New York, said working at the center is a daily learning experience. "Our physicians have always been progressive and learning the latest and greatest out there," he said. "It's never boring. We're right there with the newest technology and equipment. It's like a one-stop shop." Today, the center has a team of three full- time, board-certified radiation oncologists, as well as a physician assistant and nurse practitioner, and 12 medical oncology providers. Dr. Bryan also oversaw the organization of a group of volunteers who came to be known the Friends of the Cancer Center. Gwendolyn McLeod, Radiation RN Jamye Arnette, Oncology RN Mary Kulig, Corporate Director of Medical Oncology Brian Boyle, Radiation Therapist

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