PORT TOWNSEND — Starting in September, oncology patients in Jefferson County won’t have to travel far from home to receive the latest evolution in radiation therapy.
Jefferson Healthcare will have its own powerful disease-fighting weapon — a linear accelerator delivering high doses of radiation to patients with pinpoint accuracy, destroying cancer cells while sparing nearby healthy tissue.
The Jefferson Healthcare Foundation raised $2.5 million to purchase a Varian Medical System TrueBeam linear accelerator that will be located in the hospital’s new radiation oncology facility, part of its $98 million campus modernization and expansion project scheduled to be completed in July.
“The foundation exists to help the hospital in whatever it needs,” said Carla Caldwell, executive director of the Jefferson Healthcare Foundation, the nonprofit that supports the hospital through grants and fundraising. “When a big need like this comes along like the linear accelerator, we had to go big.”
Jefferson County oncology patients must currently travel significant distances to receive treatment, Caldwell said.
Local comprehensive cancer care means the same quality of service without the logistical, financial and emotional burdens that come with spending hours on the road.
The organization reached its campaign goal at an event on March 13.
“The community made this happen,” Caldwell said.
Caldwell said the campaign received about $550,000 in grants, including $400,000 from the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust and $25,000 from the First Fed Community Foundation, as well as several $100,000 gifts.
The LINAC machine will arrive and be installed next month in a specially fabricated room that shields anyone outside it from radiation. It will then go through monthslong safety and function testing.
U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Edmonds, helped secure $2.5 million in appropriation funding in 2023 for construction of the vault housing the LINAC.
Jefferson Healthcare has hired one radiation therapist and plans to hire another.
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Reporter Paula Hunt can be reached by email at paula.hunt@peninsuladailynews.com.
