[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 70 (Tuesday, May 18, 2004)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E893-E894]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             IN MEMORY OF MR. PATRICK MICHAEL McGRADY, JR.

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. FRANK PALLONE, JR.

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, May 18, 2004

  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor the memory of Patrick 
Michael McGrady. Mr. McGrady was a great American who devoted his life 
to helping people with cancer, including a great number of people from 
New Jersey's Sixth Congressional District.
  Born in 1932 in a rural village in Washington's Olympic Peninsula, 
Mr. McGrady attended Yale University on a scholarship, excelling in 
German, Russian, and Yiddish. After graduating from Yale in 1954, Mr. 
McGrady served a stint at the Chicago-Sun Times, and subsequently moved 
on to write for the Associated Press and United Press International. He 
later served as bureau chief in Moscow for Newsweek magazine before 
becoming an author of books about health and medicine.
  Mr. McGrady later became founder and director of CANHELP, an 
information service for cancer patients operating out of Port Ludlow, 
WA. He subsequently devoted 20 years of his life to this organization 
that provided a lifeline for people caught in what he deemed ``The 
Cancer Patient's Quandary.''
  According to Mr. McGrady, many cancer patients find themselves in a 
quandary because, ``You don't know how long you'll live, you don't know 
what it is like to die and you haven't the vaguest notion of where to 
turn for a cure.'' Things can rapidly become tragic, he noted, 
``because the patient has so little time to make a series of decisions, 
all of which simply have to be correct. Just one misstep can spell a 
premature and ugly death.''
  Mr. McGrady came to understand this quandary too well when his 
father, a science editor of the American Cancer Society, suffered an 
``ugly death'' from colon cancer in 1979. Appalled by the needless pain 
and misery that his father endured, Mr. McGrady remarked, ``This 
treatment, these manners, this attitude, are not exceptional, they are 
commonplace. I know this from the atrocities cancer patients tell me 
everyday. It is the rule in a society where the practice of medicine 
has become a commodity like pork bellies and soy beans and where human 
beings are viewed as pigeons to be plucked.''
  Determined not to let another cancer patient endure such 
maltreatment, Mr. McGrady spent his time as director of CANHELP, 
focusing on helping patients navigate the cancer care maze and 
understand its complexities. Unfortunately, Mr. McGrady passed away on 
December 12, 2003, ending a long life devoted to helping others.
  Mr. Speaker, as the 6-month anniversary of Mr. McGrady's death 
approaches, I wanted to

[[Page E894]]

share his story with my colleagues, and pay tribute to this remarkable 
man. Accordingly, I ask that my colleagues join me in honoring the 
distinguished Mr. Patrick Michael McGrady, Jr., and all of his 
remarkable contributions.

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