QMG Stories

National Cancer Survivors Day: Mellissa's Story

Mel­lis­sa D., a devot­ed mom and care­tak­er, was used to putting oth­ers first — until per­sis­tent abdom­i­nal pain led to a life-chang­ing diag­no­sis of large B‑cell lym­phoma. Hav­ing pre­vi­ous­ly over­come colon can­cer, Mel­lis­sa faced a new and more intense jour­ney involv­ing chemother­a­py and emo­tion­al recov­ery. With the sup­port of her fam­i­ly, her faith, and the care team at Quin­cy Med­ical Group, includ­ing oncol­o­gist Dr. Ray­mond Smith, Mel­lis­sa com­plet­ed treat­ment and emerged as a two-time can­cer sur­vivor. Now, she’s shar­ing her sto­ry to encour­age oth­ers to lis­ten to their bod­ies, lean on hope, and know that brighter days are pos­si­ble — even after the dark­est moments.

A Diagnosis She Never Expected: Leanne's Story

Leanne W. spent years enjoy­ing the sun with­out much thought about the risks. When a spot on her leg reap­peared years after removal, she put off get­ting it checked — until a mas­sage ther­a­pist urged her to take action. That push led to a melanoma diag­no­sis and time­ly treat­ment by Quin­cy Med­ical Group’s Der­ma­tol­ogy team. Now can­cer-free, Leanne shares her sto­ry to remind oth­ers not to wait: It could save your life.

Like Mother, Like Daughter: Lori’s Story

Lori K. was inspired to become a nurse by watch­ing her moth­er, a ded­i­cat­ed nurse at Quin­cy Clin­ic. Her ear­ly expo­sure to com­pas­sion­ate care shaped her child­hood dream of enter­ing health­care — a dream she nev­er wavered from. Lori began her career in pedi­atrics, learn­ing the val­ue of lis­ten­ing from Dr. Wal­ter Whitak­er, and lat­er tran­si­tioned to ortho­pe­dics, where she has worked for 15 years. Now with over 30 years in nurs­ing, Lori con­tin­ues to find ful­fill­ment in help­ing oth­ers and val­ues every patient’s sto­ry. She encour­ages oth­ers to explore the many oppor­tu­ni­ties in nursing.

Trusting QMG Through the Decades: Kevin’s Story

For Kevin R., Quin­cy Med­ical Group (QMG) has been a trust­ed health­care part­ner through­out his life — from sur­viv­ing a near-fatal child­hood acci­dent under the care of Dr. Wal­ter Whitak­er to receiv­ing ongo­ing ortho­pe­dic and spe­cial­ty care as an adult. Kevin val­ues the long-stand­ing rela­tion­ships he’s built with QMG providers. His expe­ri­ences have rein­forced his belief in the high-qual­i­ty care avail­able local­ly at QMG, mak­ing it his go-to choice for both him­self and his family.

Where Care Feels Close: Reece's Story

When Kathryn and Adam wel­comed their son Reece into the world, they were met with uncer­tain­ty fol­low­ing his diag­no­sis with an extreme­ly rare genet­ic con­di­tion. As Reece faced com­plex med­ical chal­lenges, his fam­i­ly won­dered if the care he need­ed could be found close to home. Through the sup­port of their pedi­a­tri­cian and ther­a­py team at Quin­cy Med­ical Group, they dis­cov­ered not just expert care, but a com­mu­ni­ty of providers who became true part­ners in Reece’s journey.

Hats of Hope: Susan's Story

When Susan G. was diag­nosed with pan­cre­at­ic can­cer, she faced the dif­fi­cult jour­ney ahead with resilience and a unique source of strength — her grow­ing col­lec­tion of hats. What start­ed as a fun dis­trac­tion became a dai­ly reminder to stay pos­i­tive through surgery, chemother­a­py, and radi­a­tion. Sup­port­ed by her Quin­cy Med­ical Group care team, fam­i­ly, and friends, Susan marked each mile­stone with grat­i­tude, cul­mi­nat­ing in the joy­ous moment of ring­ing the bell to sig­nal the end of treat­ment. On Feb­ru­ary 3, 2025, she received the life-chang­ing news — her can­cer was in remis­sion. Look­ing back, she cred­its her ear­ly diag­no­sis and the sup­port around her for sav­ing her life.

Rising Star Award: Natalie D.

Our fifth and final annu­al award recog­ni­tion is for the QMG Ris­ing Star Award and it was pre­sent­ed to Natal­ie D., Patient Access Coor­di­na­tor. Recip­i­ents of this dis­tin­guished award demon­strates out­stand­ing promise in their respec­tive field, exhibits lead­er­ship and integri­ty in serv­ing patients and the com­mu­ni­ty, cul­ti­vates col­lab­o­ra­tion amongst their team, and dis­plays curios­i­ty, cre­ativ­i­ty, and diver­si­ty of thought to cre­ate change and make an impact in field of healthcare.