Ensuring all Arkansans have access to cancer prevention, early detection and compassionate care

Kinco Constructors is an Arkansas-based company with team members and clients all across the state and region.

Many of our team members and those we serve have been impacted by cancer and have benefited from the high-quality cancer care provided by UAMS. 

As a company, Kinco Constructors is focused on building excellence, and that includes ensuring that our people have access to excellent health care, no matter where they live in the state.  

When we learned about the MammoVan, we liked the fact that it travels to counties all across the state –including many of Arkansas’rural communities –providing mammograms and cancer education.

We also liked the fact that there are opportunities to do even more with the MammoVans, including the possibility of adding men’s cancer screenings. 

Building on that vision, helping UAMS pursue National Cancer Institute Designation and expanding critical health care outreach around the state are all initiatives we want to help advance. Kinco Constructors is
proud to invest in programs that improve the health and well-being of our team members, clients and all Arkansans.”

-Doug Wasson, President/CEO

New Mexico businessman and grateful patient raises awareness, funds for multiple myeloma

When New Mexico restaurateur, rancher and attorney Ed Tinsley III got an unusual result on a blood test in late 2010, he had no idea what lay ahead. “It was around Christmas,” he recalls. “I felt great, but I had noticed it was taking me longer to overcome some infections.” Further testing confirmed that Ed had monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS) in his blood, an abnormal protein that forms within the bone marrow. 

According to the National Cancer Institute, each year about 1% of people with MGUS develop multiple myeloma, a rare blood cancer. Ed and his wife Meredith began searching for the best care available. With help and support from their two children, Edward and Ede, they soon discovered the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences’ (UAMS) Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute and its Myeloma Center. The Myeloma Center is the most comprehensive center in the world for research and clinical care related to multiple myeloma and related diseases. 

“We analyzed all the choices, and we felt like this was the best place to be. I appreciated their positive and aggressive approach, as well as their commitment to be on the cutting edge of new therapies,” Tinsley said.
   
“The relationships we developed at the Cancer Institute, and the experiences we had at UAMS and in Little Rock, raised my confidence and my comfort level in the team I was working with. We cannot say enough about the medical team who has supported us throughout the years. They are nothing short of fantastic!”

The Tinsleys traveled to the Cancer Institute every few months to monitor the MGUS. However, by 2016, his condition had progressed to multiple myeloma. 

He had a stem cell transplant in 2017, and a tandem transplant in 2018. The tandem transplant was described to the Tinsleys as the best way to achieve the most positive results, and it did. Tinsley achieved complete remission in 2018, and said he’s grateful for the care he received at the Cancer Institute. 

In an effort to raise awareness of the options and resources available to treat blood cancers, in 2021 Tinsley launched a fundraiser at his Flying W Diamond Ranch in Capitan, New Mexico, to benefit research at the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute. 

Called “Caballos Against Cancer” (Horses Against Cancer), the inaugural event was held in October 2021, and the second event was held in August 2022. Both events featured barrel racing competitors from across Texas and New Mexico, as well as a host of live and silent auction items, music and a dinner in an outdoor tented venue. 

“I was born and raised in a ranching family, and a ranching families’ nature is to help others,” he said. “I have been a part of that culture since birth, so I thought we could tie in our lifestyle with horses and our ranch, and have some fun with it.”

Sadly, Ed passed away in late 2022. In an effort to honor his passion for myeloma awareness and research, Ed’s family allowed us to share this story he approved earlier this year.

To learn more, visit ranchosdecaballosestates.com or flyingdiamondranch.com

Despite the pandemic and a slightly smaller volunteer pool,the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute Auxiliary made a significant impact on the well-being of our patients and staff this past year. Even with masking and COVID still circulating, the organization’s Partners Card fundraiser was a huge success, selling almost 2,000 cards and raising $139,000. 

Thank you to Presenting Sponsors Win and Natalie Rockefeller and to all who purchased cards. Our patients benefitted from your generosity! Since 2017, the auxiliary has contributed an amazing $2,928,226 to the Institute, funds that pay for the supplement pantry, food, gas and blanket warmers. 

The auxiliary is also a vital source of funding for our Patient Support Fund, which also provides money for housing and medication. 

We’re excited to see volunteer returning to help support our Most Vital Pals “MVP” Program, which pairs volunteers with new myeloma patients. 

We host up to 15 new myeloma patients each week. We are so grateful for the 11,600 hours that volunteers gave to the Cancer Institute. We are especially grateful to Debbie King, our Volunteer of the Year.

And we finally got to celebrate our 2021 Auxiliary Distinguished Honoree, Cam Patterson, M.D., MBA, at an in-person event at the home of Stuart Cobb.

What a joy to be back together again! We have big plans for the upcoming year, so be sure to renew your auxiliary membership.

If you’re interested in volunteering, we need you! 

Call the Department of Volunteer Services at 501-696-8286 or visit cancer.uams.edu for more information.

If giving is a reflection of a person’s heart, then our volunteer of the year, Debbie King has a heart of gold.

Joyful, grateful and loving are all adjectives that speak of her generosity. We are so thankful for her commitment, service and dedication to the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute.

Only a generous and special person would  come to campus, rain or shine, for 104 days including weekends.

Join us as we give thanks for Debbie and others like her who give selflessly in service of others at UAMS.

Larry Crain Sr. pledged $1 million to honor his late wife, Janett, who died of cancer in 2018. The gift also honored Janett’s caregivers and Crain’s sister-in-law, who survived advanced lung cancer thanks to a clinical trial. In appreciation of the gift, UAMS renamed the Seed of Hope Garden on the Cancer Institute’s ground floor as the Janett Crain Seed of Hope Garden. 

Kim and Chris Fowler of Jonesboro also made a $1 million gift in honor of James Suen, M.D., who treated Chris when he was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2011. The donation put UAMS over the halfway mark toward its $30 million NCI designation goal. Chris Fowler is the president of Fowler Foods, Inc. He is a first-generation Taco Bell and a second-generation KFC franchisee owner. Together, Kim and Chris Fowler own and operate more than 91 KFCs and Taco Bell restaurants in an eight-state area.

• Thousands of lives improved through your gifts
• Together, we raised  $2.9 Million for cancer research
• 11,600 hours given by you  through volunteerism

“These incredible gifts will provide critical resources to the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute as we pursue NCI Designation.” 

Michael Birrer, M.D., Ph.D. UAMS Vice Chancellor and Director of the Cancer Institute 

Even during a pandemic, support for the Cancer Institute continued with more energy and passion than ever. From a record turnout at our Be A Part of the Cure Walk, to successful Telethon and Partners Card fundraisers, and the countless volunteers who showed up rain or shine, we felt the love!

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