Keith G. Hirst Chooses Giving Over Giving Up

By Sylvia Whitman  |  Photo by Jordan Kelly-Laviolette

When Sarasota Memorial Hospital’s Oncology Tower opens in 2021, the media will roll out the impressive figures again: 170,000 square feet reaching 8 stories high, 56 private inpatient rooms, 9 state-of-the-art operating rooms, 1 rooftop café with a view of the bay. Donors working through Sarasota Memorial Healthcare Foundation (SMHF) are helping support the tower and the new Cancer Institute it anchors. Keith Hirst, for instance, has committed $1 million, and the 7th floor, with 28 of those patient rooms, will bear his name. 

Practicing philanthropy is a way of life for many Sarasotans with means. For Hirst, who’s been battling cancer for almost a decade, it’s also a survival strategy. 

“I’m just—what do you call it? Tough,” he says with a chuckle. “I’m wanting to hang in there and do things. I have too many things I’d like to get accomplished. I keep involved, and it keeps my mind on other things.”

His generosity predates his illness. “I always liked to help people,” says Hirst. “I seem to have the gene.” 

Raised in southwest Michigan, he double-majored in journalism and advertising, with a minor in economics, at Michigan State University. While awaiting active army orders following his ROTC commission, he landed a temporary job as editor and advertising manager at the oldest weekly in Indiana. In the Army, he rose through the ranks to captain—in charge of a newspaper at Fort Bragg. Once discharged, he began a 20-year career with a Michigan newspaper chain. Money to donate was the happy by-product of a sideline in social investing.

Despite “a couple of close calls,” Hirst never married, working until he moved back to his hometown to assist his mother through a final year with liver cancer. In 1985 he moved to Sarasota County, to Venice first, then Palmer Ranch. His altruistic DNA led him to Resurrection House and the Salvation Army, as well as Church of the Palms. 

Hirst thrives on feeling needed. He was so busy, he says, “I found myself going places, and I’d run into myself.” In 2008, guided by the Community Foundation of Sarasota County, he founded the Keith G. Hirst Benevolent Fund. He carries its mission statement in his pocket—a pledge to assist existing organizations in healthcare, education, and human services. He underwrote scholarships for high school students. He dove so deep into the work of Southeastern Guide Dogs that his name graces two buildings and a boulevard on its Palmetto campus.

But along the way he got sick.

In 2010, a painful case of shingles slowed him down. A second whammy hit a year later: a diagnosis of polycythemia vera (PV). This rare blood cancer disproportionately afflicts men over 60; their bone marrow produces too many red blood cells, with rippling complications. Hirst was just shy of 71. 

Treatment began with phlebotomy, draining off at first a pint of blood a couple of times a week. Then came chemo, an allergic reaction, changes of drugs, changes of doctors, and a referral to Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa. For the first visit, a friend drove Hirst, but after that, he commuted alone. Although he has responded well to the drug Jakafi, “it’s become a hard trip,” says Hirst. He has days when he doesn’t feel well, when he’s tired and weak and forgetful. He wears braces temporarily because of the torque of clenching his teeth in pain. 

Through brutal rounds of chemo, Hirst has held fast to four pillars:  faith, love, hope, and his charities. “I keep going because I know there are people out there who are not as fortunate as I am,” he says. Fortunate—because he’s in a position to be able to give.

Hirst heard about plans for the SMH Cancer Institute in Sarasota and presented himself to the Sarasota Memorial Healthcare Foundation. The more he learned about the integrated program, the more it seemed a natural focus for his “caring fund.” He loved that the Cancer Institute will allow patients to find treatment close to home, without a grueling commute. 

“Cancer needs to be addressed. They talk about a war on cancer and all that. I guess this is my little challenge,” says Hirst. “I was afraid at first. I don’t want for people to be afraid.” 

He continues, “When I was told, ‘You have cancer,’ I had a lot of questions. I wanted to know, What kind of a cancer do I have? What am I going to go through? And I didn’t have anywhere to go with my questions.” Hirst appreciates the new Cancer Institute’s “navigators,” nurses and counselors available to address whatever patients and families bring up. 

Ticia Mahler, SMHF director of communications, says patients worry about finances, children, next steps. She quotes Dr. Richard Brown, director of the Cancer Institute: “‘It is not just cancer  treatment, it’s true patient care.’” That’s what will set it apart from other places where you can get little pieces of the cancer puzzle and you’re stressed.”  

Hirst takes pleasure in imagining patients on the 7th floor of the oncology tower, getting answers during their short-term stays. There are two inpatient floors, 6 and 7. “I chose the 7th floor,” Hirst says, “because it’s closer to heaven. I think that God’s watching us. I think He would definitely approve.”

Lending his name to his philanthropy “makes me feel proud that people are being helped,” Hirst says. “I always like for people to have a plan in life. And have a mission. Those who are part of this project here, they like to work with people. They like to accomplish things.” He considers himself part of the team. “I have plans to do more,” he says.

He’s giving more than money, sharing his grit and optimism. He has lost his mother and a brother to cancer. Another brother has beat back prostate cancer twice. Hirst acknowledges that he’s a “living example” of how to react to a cancer diagnosis. “I probably will never recover,” he says. “But I will be a good example to encourage other people enthusiastically. 

“Don’t ever give up. You can live with cancer.”

FOR MORE INFORMATIONabout Sarasota Memorial  Healthcare Foundation, visit smhf.org or call 941.917.1286.