Our Stories

As a medical technologist with 36 years of experience, Dan Starck understood too well how serious his 29-year-old son Justin’s cancer diagnosis was. “It was incurable from day one,” Dan said. The initial diagnosis gave him just two years. From the time he was diagnosed, Justin and his family fought back with chemotherapy and multiple surgeries. “We made the best of it and he endured it and he kept trying,” Dan said. “He knew the outcome. He knew he would not beat this thing.”

As Dan helped his son battle an incurable cancer, his colleagues rallied around him. They helped him cover days off work when he needed to care for Justin. And for that, Dan says he feels “forever grateful.”

Justin went on hospice care and moved in with his parents for what would be the last three months of his life. The more time Dan spent away from work caring for Justin, the more his income was impacted and the lost wages began adding up. When Justin passed away, Dan and his wife, Donna, were not only grieving but also faced with the hardship of covering the cost of a funeral at a time when their finances were already drained.

Dan’s manager talked to him about the HCA Healthcare Hope Fund, and Dan decided to apply for help. The assistance from the Hope Fund helped cover his missed wages and helped with the funeral expenses.

To his colleagues who donate and make help available, he says, “Thank you from the bottom of my heart.” He also wants his colleagues to know the Hope Fund is available to help for many kinds of hardships. He says, “A lot of people need help at times, and it’s a very good program to give a hand when a crisis arises.”