The Hutchinson Center's first chaplain worked for 14 years providing comfort, understanding and hope for patients

It's been 25 years since Percy Randle came to Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center for a bone marrow transplant and nine years since he left. During that time, Randle beat cancer, found his true calling and touched the lives of hundreds of Hutchinson Center patients and their families by becoming the Center's first chaplain.

"My experience as a chaplain there opened my eyes - and my heart, too," said Randle. "I grew so much spiritually and emotionally through my time there."

Randle passed away in October 2008, due to complications of hepatitis. He is survived by his wife, Anita.

Randle was a 25-year-old farm chemical salesman when he learned he had chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML), a rare form of leukemia in which the body's bone marrow produces too many white blood cells.

Eighteen months after his diagnosis, Randle heard about a new treatment being tested for CML - bone marrow transplants. His doctor suggested Randle travel from Mississippi to Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, an internationally recognized leader in transplant research.

At that time, treating CML with bone-marrow transplants was such a new approach that data on long-term results was non-existent. The protocol included total body radiation and massive doses of chemotherapy to destroy the diseased marrow.

With his brother Fred providing a near-perfect match, Randle received his transplant on Oct. 3, 1983. He was leukemia-free ever since his recent death.

Randle's experience at the Hutchinson Center did more than defeat his cancer. It inspired him to act on a previous urge to join the ministry - as a chaplain at the Center.

"People experience so much of what goes on at the Center in a spiritual way," said Randle. "My goal was to show them how they needed a chaplain and how a chaplain could work with doctors, nurses and staff and be a big asset. I know I needed one when I was there."

Randle enrolled in a non-denominational clinical pastoral training program, and then he spent two years volunteering at the Center. In 1986, The Hutchinson Center established Pastoral Care as a department, hiring Randle as its first director in January of 1987.

Randle was at the Center for 14 years before the pain of spina bifida became too great, forcing him to retire and prompting him and Anita to return to their home state of Mississippi to be nearer their families.

As a chaplain, Randle didn't preach. Instead, he listed and responded to each patient's unique spiritual needs, providing comfort, understanding and hope - all reinforced by his own positive experience as a patient.

"I owe so much to the patients who came before me and put their lives on the line for research," Randle said. "What they learned from other people before me helped me, and what they learned from me helped other people later. I always remember that."

The Family Assistance Fund was established in honor of Randle and Marion McCarty. The fund provides aid to patients, their families or caregivers who demonstrate a need for financial assistance with daily, non-medical expenses, such as grocery money, child-care costs, bus fares or long-distance phone calls.