Hammond Center Celebrates 23rd Birthday

More than two decades of treating patients

  (Hammond) – Tangipahoa Parish President Gordon Burgess stopped by Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center in Hammond March 18 to help celebrate the Center’s 23 years of treating cancer patients. Todd Stevens, president & CEO of Mary Bird Perkins; Vicki Hall, one of the original directors of the Hammond Center; and Tammy Asmus, the Center’s present director, all joined with Hammond staff and volunteers to share cake and punch. “Area physicians began asking for a Mary Bird Perkins location to serve the Florida Parishes in 1985,” Stevens told those assembled. The doors for the Hammond facility were open for business on March 14, 1988. “Affording cancer patients the opportunity to be close to family and friends during treatment and recovery has a big impact on survivorship,” Stevens said. Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center is celebrating its 40^th anniversary this year. It now has five locations across southeast Louisiana.   Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center has been fighting cancer for over 40 years with locations in Baton Rouge, Covington, Hammond, Houma and Gonzales. It has comprehensive cancer programs with Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center in Baton Rouge and St. Tammany Parish Hospital in Covington. These programs are accredited by the American College of Surgeons – the gold standard for community-based cancer care.