When Vicki Thu rang the bell in the Jamestown Regional Medical Center (JRMC) Cancer Center, she didn’t just mark the end of treatment — she celebrated getting her life back.
Vicki Thu is a vibrant woman. She loves travelling the world, staying active and spending time with her husband, Bob, and their 16 children — 14 adopted and 2 biological. But in late 2019, as she prepared for a long-awaited family trip to Machu Pichu, her world came to a halt.
While training for the trip, she began noticing some strange symptoms — numbness and a burning sensation surging through her body. Concerned that she may be experiencing a stroke, Bob brought her into the Jamestown Regional Medical Center (JRMC) emergency room to be checked out.
What they discovered was far more serious.
“We could not believe it,” Vicki recalled. “The ER doctor told me, ‘You have a giant tumor on your brain.’ Then he said he knew the best brain surgeon in North Dakota and called him, right then, on his personal cell phone.”
The following Tuesday, Vicki was in Fargo seeing the brain surgeon who identified not only the tumor on her brain, but also a large tumor encompassing her left kidney and spots on her lungs. Surgery was scheduled immediately — brain surgery on Christmas Eve, followed by kidney removal on January 8.
Miraculously, both surgeries went even better than expected. Recovery was swift and follow-up radiation treatments targeted the remaining cancer. Through it all, she saw every single element as part of a bigger plan.
“Everything aligned so perfectly — the right ER doctor, quick scheduling, successful surgeries and local infusions. It was all a ‘God thing!’” exclaimed Thu.
The next step of her recovery was Keytruda infusions every three weeks at JRMC Cancer Center to build up her immune system again. For a year and a half, the cancer center became a place of support and healing.
“Everyone on the team was so kind — they all knew me by name,” Vicki said. “From the nurses and nurse practitioner to my oncologist, I always felt completely confident in the care I was receiving. I got just as good of care here in Jamestown as I did in Fargo, but without the hours of travel.”
Hours and miles are exactly what motivated JRMC to open the doors of its cancer center in partnership with Sanford Health in 2019.
“Time is an extra precious commodity when you are fighting for your life,” said JRMC President and CEO Mike Delfs. “The JRMC Cancer Center was built to give time to the patient and their family, not to the interstate.”
Two years after her initial diagnosis, the verdict was given on Vicki’s cancer journey. On November 22, 2021, she rang the graduation bell in the JRMC Cancer Center — marking that in this fight, she was the victor. Her family stood proudly beside her.
“I felt like I had won. Something that had completely changed our household and our lives was finally over,” Thu remembered. “When you are in the midst of something like cancer, you stop planning for the future and focus only on surviving the moment. When I rang that bell, I took charge of my time again.”
Today, Vicki has regular PET scans and check-ins with her oncologist. She also uses her experience to encourage others — offering hope to those facing a cancer diagnosis and advocating for the services available at the JRMC Cancer Center.
“When cancer hits a family, it’s fast — you’re already spinning when you get the diagnosis,” she said. “It’s better to know ahead of time what’s available here in Jamestown. The Cancer Center is not only for cancer patients — they also provide other infusion services and offer comfort items like free caps and scarves. It’s a place of healing and hope.”
As an independent medical center, JRMC is committed to providing advanced cancer treatment and infusion services locally, ensuring patients don’t have to sacrifice quality for convenience.
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