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BY Tim Ward

I’ve been a regular blood donor since 1981. But it wasn’t until my wife, Kelly, was diagnosed with stage IV anal cancer in 2014 that blood donation became personal.

As a cancer caregiver, you learn that “you” becomes “we.” Following Kelly’s diagnosis, I set everything in my life aside. I became an expert in her type of cancer and the treatments and procedures.

After she completed chemotherapy and radiation therapy near our...

Blood donor Tim Ward poses with his late wife, Kelly Ward, who died of anal cancer