The diagnosis hit Tom Celani like a lightning bolt on a clear blue sky day. One moment he’s tromping through the woods on a hunting trip with his son. The next moment he’s lying motionless in an MRI machine, wondering how long it will take for the doctors to figure out why there’s fluid buildup around his lungs. Tom’s story illustrates the remarkable way that relationships have a ripple effect for good.

It was a perfect September day in New Mexico. Tom Celani and his son had spent the past week hunting elk in the mountains of Raton. They’d walked 30 miles with their bows stalking the elusive animals, and Tom felt great. But later that week, after they’d returned to their vineyard in Napa Valley, Tom felt short of breath. Concerned about his heart, he went to his physician to get it checked out. Several visits and tests later, the doctors concluded his heart was fine—but he had fluid around his lungs.

Tom had two liters of fluid drained off his back. Then a lung biopsy revealed some cancerous nodules. Shortly after Christmas, Tom was diagnosed with mesothelioma, a rare kind of cancer that affects the membrane of the lungs.

It was heavy news. Mesothelioma has sobering statistics for life expectancy. Tom immediately began making calls. He has served on the board of a hospital foundation in the Detroit area, where he lives half the year. But he quickly realized they would not be able to help him in this case.

“I knew from talking with my friends and executives there that I was dealing with a specialty situation. They told me that my cancer is very rare and there’s not a ton of research money behind it. They said, ‘You need to go to someone who does this, only this, and does a lot of it.’”

The Fast Track, Even Faster

In the midst of all this, Tom had been introduced to Healthnetwork Foundation by a business associate. Many Healthnetwork members go years before needing to utilize our services, if ever at all. But in Tom’s case, as a new member, his first call would be the call that saved his life.

Tom was paired with one of Healthnetwork’s medical coordinators, Kim Dixon, to assist him in his search for a mesothelioma specialist. Serendipitously, on the very same morning that Kim was reviewing Tom’s case, the Healthnetwork executive team was hosting two guests from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. One of those guests was Dr. David Jackman, a thoracic oncologist who has helped several Healthnetwork families.

Typically, the process for our medical coordinators starts with a flurry of phone calls and emails. On this day, taking advantage of the fact that a renowned thoracic oncologist from one of the world’s top cancer hospitals happened to be in the building, Kim walked down the hall. When she described Tom’s situation and his mesothelioma diagnosis, Dr. Jackman said he knew exactly the person Tom needed to see. On the spot, he connected Kim with Dr. Raphael Bueno, who is Chief of Thoracic Surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and known worldwide for his expertise in mesothelioma.

An Intense Surgery

A few weeks later Tom packed a bag and flew to Boston to meet with Dr. Bueno and his team. And a few weeks after that, he packed a bigger bag and went back to Boston for the surgery and a month of recovery time. From the moment he received the diagnosis, Tom was determined to get to the right person; he just never expected it to happen so quickly.

“Everything was happening so fast, I didn’t even have a lot of time to reflect or feel an emotional reaction to the diagnosis,” Tom recalls. “The appointments, getting to Boston for the consultation, preparing to be there for a month, not knowing what the outcome of the surgery would be… There was a lot of planning and getting my personal life in order. It was a whirlwind.”

Tom felt as confident as one could feel when heading into a 12-hour, incredibly complex surgery. He took comfort knowing that Dr. Bueno and his team have performed 1,500 of these kinds of surgeries over the past couple decades. “Dr. Bueno explained in layman’s terms what would be happening in the surgery,” Tom recalls. “He told me it would be like peeling an orange and removing the pith, except with the pleura, the protective membrane around the lungs. He said it’s very tedious and would take a long time, but he was confident and optimistic.”

Tom’s surgery was deemed a success. And his first follow-up scans a few months later showed no sign of the cancer returning. He will continue to go back to Brigham and Women’s Hospital every 4-6 months for follow-up scans for the next several years. Besides the immense relief and gratitude to the surgical team, Tom was deeply impressed with the nurses who took care of him afterwards. “The nurses are the ones who give you encouragement and keep you motivated. And you really need that to be there for so long. Every time I made a move, whether to use the restroom or take a walk in the hallway, the nurses were right there with me. They were unbelievable.”

Funding Research

Through his experience, Tom learned that mesothelioma, being such a rare cancer, does not attract very much funding for research, and after he recovered from surgery, he wanted to do something about that. “I’m lucky enough that I’ve done well in life and I have a couple foundations I can use to make donations. Hopefully Dr. Bueno has cured me, and I’ll be fine for a long time. I just felt a need to help somebody else.”

In December of 2024, less than one year after Tom got his diagnosis, The Celani Family Foundation partnered with Healthnetwork Foundation to make a $500,000 donation to Brigham and Women’s Hospital to be used for mesothelioma research directed by Dr. Bueno.

“We were glad to do the donation together with Healthnetwork since we understand that it’s helpful to them as they’re building relationships with hospitals,” Tom says. “Our gift will help them and will end up in Dr. Bueno’s hands for research—it’s a double win.”