Top left photo : Dr . Jami Fukui ( Terri ’ s oncologist ) stands with Les McCoy at the endowment signing .
“ I was stunned ,” Les McCoy says about seeing Terri , an acquaintance he ’ d been out of touch with for 20 years . Les was in San Diego taking command of a naval aircraft squadron , and his brother invited friends from their high school to attend his promotion ceremony .
“ After the ceremony , Terri and I talked for the rest of the day ,” he says . “ All I could think was ‘ Wow !’ I knew this was it . We got married three years later .”
New military assignments sent Terri and Les to Hawai ‘ i , Cuba and Florida . Terri liked Hawai ‘ i so much she hunted down a job in Honolulu for Les after his retirement from military service . He says , “ She found my Naval Academy classmate from 27 years before and told me to ask him about jobs . We returned to our home in the islands .”
A zest for life
“ One of the most devastating things to hear is when your spouse tells you they have cancer ,” says Les . “ She never told us about the type of cancer or the mortality rate . She refused until her last breath to accept that this disease might kill her .”
Les says in times like this , you truly see a person ’ s character . “ In extremis , she was determined to win . At the end , they couldn ’ t control her blood pressure while she was on pain meds , so she went off medication to keep herself alive . Watching her suffer was heartbreaking .”
Supporting research & education
So others might avoid Terri ’ s suffering , Les established the Terri M . McCoy Memorial Endowed Fund for Breast Cancer Research and Education , supporting research and community education at the UH Cancer Center , including projects related to breast cancer risk and the importance of screening .
Les says , “ I knew when Terri died , this is the kind of thing she ’ d like to do . This is how she was made . If we can have an impact on others , I feel we ’ ve done well .”
“ I spent 26 years protecting Terri from anything and anybody . Suddenly , I couldn ’ t do anything . I had to watch her die slowly over several years ,” says Les . “ I held her hand for three years at every chemo session , but she never let me attend meetings with the doctor after the first conversation . She was determined to protect me , her daughter Tamara , and her granddaughter , Kyiah . Now , with this fund , Terri might provide countless women with better odds of detecting and surviving this terrible disease .”
If you would like to support the UH Cancer Center , please contact Elizabeth Kuioka at ekuioka @ cc . hawaii . edu or 808-356-5764 .
FALL 2022 | INNOVATIONS 7