By John Mark Shaver, WV News
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The Hazel Ruby McQuain Charitable Trust made a “transformational” gift to WVU Medicine on Tuesday, contributing $50 million for the construction of a new cancer hospital in Morgantown.
The new center will be called the Hazel Ruby McQuain Comprehensive Cancer Hospital, and is set to be a multi-story building that offers both inpatient and outpatient care, as well as surgical suites procedural rooms.
It will additionally house the WVU Cancer Institute’s multidisciplinary care all in one location, including cancer prevention and education, clinical research, CAR T-cell therapy, cardio-oncology, outreach, genetics, integrative medicine, pain management, reconstructive surgery and rehabilitation.
The gift was announced on campus at J.W. Ruby Memorial Hospital by Hazel Ruby McQuain Charitable Trust Chair Steve Farmer.
“We look after Hazel’s affairs and try to honor Hazel’s wishes, and it’s easy since we all knew her,” Farmer said. “Today, what we’re here to announce is something Hazel would have instructed us to do … and would be very happy about.”
Farmer revealed the donation alongside WVU Health System President and CEO Albert Wright, who noted that McQuain herself originally donated $8.5 million to the health system in 1983 to make the construction of the original J.W. Ruby Memorial Hospital possible, adding that it’s an honor that money in her name is still benefitting West Virginia healthcare over 40 years later.
