$1 million donation for breast cancer center

A $1 million donation from Dallas will build much of Kalispell Regional Medical Center's new breast-cancer facility.

The hospital received the donation Tuesday. It originated from Annette and Harold Simmons.

Bids are now being sought to build the facility, which is estimated to cost roughly $1 million with construction expected to begin in September. The facility is expected to open in about a year.

The Integrated Treatment Center for Breast Cancer will consist of two floors of 3,000 square feet each that will connect the hospital's main building with the HealthCenter Northwest building. Whitefish's North Valley Hospital also is involved with the center, helping to pay some costs.

Women monitoring for and dealing with breast cancer face several types of physicians and offices - which are usually scattered in many places.

"The problem for women in America is that breast care is very fragmented," said Velinda Stevens. the chief executive officer of Kalispell Regional.

A woman with breast cancer likely would have to deal with a surgeon, an imagery facility, a pathologist, a medical oncologist and a radiation oncologist, as well as others.

The proposed breast-cancer center at Kalispell Regional is an effort to gather all these efforts in or near one location, a situation that is uncommon in the United States, Stevens said.

Tuesday's $1 million donation followed an unusual route from Dallas to Kalispell.

Paul Bass, board chairman of the Dallas-based Southwestern Medical Foundation, lives part-time in Bigfork and knows several Flathead medical officials.

They showed him statistics that indicated that of women who need routine mammograms - those 40 years old or older - from 20 percent to 50 percent actually do so in eight Northwest Montana counties.

The national average of women older than 40 who undergo mammograms is 40 to 50 percent, said Dr. Loren Rourke, a newly arrived co-director of the new breast center, along with Dr. Debra Acord. Rourke is a surgeon specializing in breast cancer. Acord is a breast imaging specialist.

Bass saw the need for such a center in Northwest Montana and talked with his friends, Annette and Harold Simmons, who have donated $310 million to medical causes.

They provided the $1 million that is being routed to the center through the Southwestern Medical Foundation.

Harold Simmons, a billionaire Texas investor, was listed by Forbes magazine as the world's 278th richest person in 2006.

After building a 100-store drugstore chain in the 1960s and then selling it to Eckerd for $50 million, he embarked on a career in investments including metals, titanium, waste management and oil and gas, according to Forbes.com.

In addition to the breast-cancer center, a $750,000 mobile unit is being built that will provide digital mammography, ultrasound and bone density equipment - along with other screenings - for patients in areas outside of Kalispell.

The mobile unit is expected to be on the road this fall.

Reporter John Stang may be reached at 758-4429 or by e-mail at jstang@dailyinterlake.com