Governor Mike Easley visited UNC Hospitals on August 5th to sign the bill passed by the General Assembly to build the new North Carolina Cancer Hospital in Chapel Hill. The new hospital will also serve as the clinical home for the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, one of only 38 such National Cancer Institute-designated centers in the United States.

Faculty, staff, and patients as well as members of the General Assembly were in attendance to celebrate this important moment. Chancellor Moeser pledged to the group that UNC would build a state-of-the-art facility to meet the needs of people from all around the state.

The Governor expressed his gratitude to the General Assembly for passing this bill saying, “The people need it. The people deserve it.” His close friend, Rick Hendrick, owner of Hendrick Automotive and NASCAR Motorsports, talked about his battle with cancer and the struggle some families go through to find the proper care for loved ones afflicted with the disease. He hopes the NC Cancer Hospital will attract not only North Carolinians, but people from throughout the nation searching for state of the art treatments in cancer.

William Roper, dean of the UNC School of Medicine and CEO of UNC Health Care System told the group, “It’s important in all of this that we see this in terms not just of the buildings and concrete and billions of dollars and numbers of research grants and projects to be accomplished, but we need to see it in the faces of the patients that we care for.”

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