Reading Time: 4 Minutes
Takeaways:
- Caregiving—both at home and in the hospital—creates the stability, encouragement, and sense of community patients need to endure treatment and recovery.
- Former patients can play a powerful role in healing by supporting others, offering lived experience, and turning hardship into meaningful connection.
Impact: Huntsman Cancer Institute fosters a culture where expert care, compassionate teams, and patient-to-patient connection extend healing beyond treatment and into lasting community support.
A cancer diagnosis is walking a path unchosen. Treatments are intense. The future can feel unclear for patients and their caregivers. It takes a team at home and in the hospital to create steady sources of strength, compassion, and hope. How does this happen?
For Fred Roth, his journey with leukemia has been shaped by the people who stood beside him: Kathy, his wife, and Cassidy Kotobalavu, MS, RN, OCN, a nurse manager at Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah. Today, their shared experience continues to help other patients navigate the same difficult road.
An Unexpected Diagnosis
In July 2012, Fred felt healthy enough to hike a popular mountain pass. He had just completed a routine physical exam and expected everything to come back normal. Instead, his doctor called with unexpected news. At 62 years old, Fred was stunned. Even more shocking was the prognosis he heard during his first appointment.
“I was told I only had a few months to live,” Fred recalls. “I wasn’t even having symptoms. The doctors were amazed I didn’t pass out on that hike because my red blood cell count was so low.”
Fred began aggressive chemotherapy for leukemia and during that time, he met Cassidy, who had just started working as a new nurse.
“He was my very first patient as a nurse here,” Cassidy says. “And I was his first nurse.”
Their connection formed quickly during those early days of treatment.
“We just connected and built this strong friendship,” Cassidy says. “I had the chance to work with him a lot.”
Fred’s path to recovery was anything but straightforward. A stem cell transplant was scheduled, but the donor backed out at the last minute. More chemotherapy followed. Over time, 11 potential donors volunteered and later withdrew.
Finally, lucky number 12 stepped forward and matched. The transplant went forward in January 2013 and things seemed successful until 2015 when Fred relapsed and had a second stem cell transplant.
But today, he celebrates a milestone many once thought impossible.
“It’s been 10 years as of September 2025,” Fred says. “Cassidy even threw us a birthday party.”
The Power of Caregivers
Throughout Fred’s treatment, Kathy was there through every difficult moment.
“I was not the doting spouse,” she says with a laugh. “My role was coach.”
Her approach was simple but powerful. “Huntsman Cancer Institute was home until this was over. I tried to make the room as livable as possible with reminders of life worth living. This was our one chance to be part of the solution with a patient game plan. We also wanted to get out and meet people. One active walker on the floor encourages more patients to come out of their rooms so we wanted to be part of the community as an active and appreciative patient.”
During Fred’s second transplant, Kathy spent more time observing the hospital environment and other patients going through similar experiences. For Kathy, Fred’s decision to help other patients today reflects the same support she hoped every family could find: Good science, good care, good community, and good energy.
“Fred shows up. He lets people know he’s in their corner” she says. “Patients know there is one more caring person adding to their good energy”.
Paying It Forward
During Fred’s first transplant, a former patient visited him to share his own experience. The conversation left a lasting impression.
“Bruce helped immensely,” Fred says. “I asked him how I could repay him. He said, ‘You can’t. Pay it forward.’”
Fred took those words seriously.
Over the past decade, he has met with more than 100 patients, often connecting with people who are facing relapse or preparing for a transplant. Doctors and nurses regularly ask if he is willing to speak with someone who could benefit from hearing from someone who has lived it.
“I start every interaction the same way,” Fred says. “I had a supportive friend in England who told me, ‘No matter how you look at this, it sucks.’ And that’s true. Usually the patient is quiet at first—but then they agree, and we start talking.”
Sometimes those conversations become long-term friendships. One patient now celebrates her cancer-free anniversary with Fred each year. “This January was her seventh year,” he says. “We revel in the gift of time and share stories of our good lives.”
Fred also shares his story through a book he and Kathy wrote together. Based on the notes he kept throughout treatment, it’s something he now gives to patients he meets.
“People will stop him in the halls after seeing pictures in the book and ask, ‘Are you Fred?’ He’s a celebrity when he walks around up there,” Kathy says.
A Lasting Impact
For Cassidy, Fred’s continued involvement at Huntsman Cancer Institute has been deeply meaningful—both personally and professionally.
When she later transitioned from bedside nursing into a leadership role overseeing the nurse residency program, she invited Fred to speak with new nurses about the patient experience.
“The nurses had the opportunity to ask Fred and Kathy anything,” she says. “It’s so valuable to hear that perspective from both a patient and a caregiver.”
Fred continues to walk the halls of the institute, stopping in to meet with patients whenever someone might benefit from his story.
“Sometimes you wonder if you’re still making a difference, Fred coming back and meeting with patients and staff is a personal reminder that I made an impact. I had a small piece in that.”
“Fred is so big on seeing patients where they are,” Cassidy says. “He’ll meet them in their rooms or just walk around talking with people.”
That kind of connection is rare.
“A lot of patients come back and visit staff,” she says. “But they don’t necessarily want to meet with other patients. It takes the right person.”
For Cassidy, Fred is also a reminder of why she became a nurse in the first place.
“I became a nurse because I wanted to make a unique difference,” she says. “Fred is that reminder.”
Even though her role today focuses more on mentoring nurses than caring for patients at the bedside, Fred’s presence continues to affirm the impact caregivers can have.
Care That Continues
Fred believes the spirit of caregiving is something he experienced every day during treatment.
That spirit inspired him to keep showing up for others.
Today, when Fred sits down with a newly diagnosed patient, he offers something simple but powerful: understanding and hope.
And sometimes, that makes all the difference.
“I’ve spent months in treatment here, I’ve never had a staff member walk into my room having a bad day. It’s always about you. They have a smile. They’re positive.”
