By John Burton
RED BANK – Riverview Medical Center will be the recipient of a $3 million dollar gift, intended to benefit the center’s cancer treatment expansion project.
John Lloyd, president and chief executive officer of Meridian Health, which owns and operates Riverview, announced this week Carol Stillwell has pledged the $3 million donation. The money, Lloyd said in a released statement, would be used for the ongoing project to construct BuildingHOPE, Riverview’s 29,000 square-foot oncology wing.
Specifically, the money will be to support the wing’s newly renovated infusion center for patients and families, with Meridian officials announcing the area, which overlooks the Navesink River, will be named the Larkin-Stillwell-Hansen infusion Center.
Stillwell is president of Stillwell-Hansen, Inc., a wholesale heating and cooling supply company headquartered in Edison, and a noted Two River area philanthropist. She currently serves on the Bayshore Community Hospital Foundation, also a Meridian facility; and the Meridian Health Foundation Board of Trustees; Stillwell also provides an annual nursing scholarship for Bayshore.
“It’s an honor to be able to give back to Riverview Medical Center,” given she considered the medical center “at the root of my journey with the Meridian family,” Stillwell said in the statement.
Over the years, family members have received care at Riverview, with Stillwell noting, “it was in some of those most difficult hours that I witnessed firsthand the finest care and compassion,” that were bestowed on those family members.
“Carol is truly a part of the Meridian Health family and I cannot express how grateful we are for her support of our oncology expansion program,” said Timothy Hogan, regional hospital president for Monmouth County, Meridian Health.
Riverview’s BuildingHOPE is slated to open later this year and will include the latest technology and procedures for the treatment of cancer patients and offer support for patients and their families as they cope with health and emotional challenges.
This project is just part of a larger $128 million, three-year undertaking for Meridian, aimed at enhancing its community-based cancer services at six Meridian facilities in Monmouth and Ocean counties.
“We must constantly grow in order to bring our patients the most cutting edge treatments in their fight against cancer,” Hogan said. “With support from generous community members like Carol, we can provide the care our patients deserve.”
