The University of Texas M.D. Andersen Cancer Center in Houston’s Texas Medical Center is one of the nation’s leading cancer hospitals and research centers. It is a place where difficult issues relating to life and death are confronted on a daily basis, yet the M.D. Andersen professionals work hard to encourage a culture of hope and optimism. It is truly one of Houston’s most remarkable places.
Consistent with that remarkable nature, look at who M.D. Andersen patients and workers were able to stumble across yesterday over the lunch hour:
On her way to Friday night’s concert in The Woodlands, Sheryl Crow made a detour for a smaller, kindred audience: women with breast cancer.
Six months after her own breast cancer made headlines, the Grammy-winning rocker stopped by the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center to mingle with and play for patients and survivors of the disease.
“After I was diagnosed Feb. 22, everything screeched to a halt,” Crow told about 200 women who gathered at the hospital’s Nellie B. Connally Breast Center for the intimate mini-concert. “I’m on a new path now: I don’t want to spend any time doing anything I don’t want to do.”
Crow, 44, who had surgery and then reconstruction, joked that “breasts are everything” in her business. She said she’s been given a clean bill of health, and called her bout with cancer as “life-changing” for her mostly male crew as for her.
Introduced as a “self-described schoolteacher from Missouri who’s built a second career as a singer-songwriter,” Crow didn’t grant media interviews.
An M.D. Anderson spokesperson said her staff had contacted the center to say that Crow wanted to visit and play a few songs for patients.
Wearing jeans, a white vest and heels, Crow sang Soak Up the Sun and Every Day Is A Winding Road to an appreciative audience that packed the center’s lobby even though M.D. Anderson gave no official notice of the event. Cell phone cameras clicked away as she played. [. . .]
Crow made the M.D. Anderson appearance as she winds down a national tour with John Mayer.
The tour had been postponed after surgery she’s described as “minimally invasive” and follow-up radiation treatment. . .
She made no in-depth references to the ordeal Friday, sticking to music and intimate conversations with patients.
“This brightened everyone’s spirits,” said Cory Hanson, a Richmond woman with Stage 3 breast cancer. “I’d been a little upset because I’d wanted to get tickets to The Woodlands show, but decided not to because I wouldn’t have the energy after today’s treatment. But this was a pretty good substitute. At The Woodlands, I wouldn’t have sat up front or gotten a hug.”
By the way, my teenage daughter reports that the Crow-Mayer concert at The Woodlands Cynthia Mitchell Pavilion was a “10.”