Peter Castelli’s Unexpected Introduction to the World of Cancer Changed His Perspective and Led to His Bequest to Smilow Cancer Hospital

Peter and Sandra Castelli

Like most of us, Peter Castelli never gave a thought to what it’s like to fight cancer—the shock of a frightening diagnosis, the painful treatments and long days in the hospital, the uncertainty about the future, the way everything in your life changes in an instant.

The notion of being sick wasn’t even on his radar.

Peter was in his mid-sixties and felt like he was on top of the world. He was living a wonderful life with a terrific marriage to his wife Sandra and a brilliant career as a consultant and entrepreneur.

“I felt bullet-proof,” he remembers. “The idea of being sick—of having cancer—was so far beyond my daily routine that I never gave it a thought.”

That began to change one day in 2014. He was playing in a charity golf tournament when he noticed that his leg felt numb. A series of exams at his local hospital led him to seek treatment at Smilow Cancer Hospital, where he received a chilling diagnosis: stage 4 Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma with four tumors.

Peter was admitted to Smilow immediately and put on high doses of five different powerful drugs. He lost his hair, his appetite, and his fingernails. The fatigue was paralyzing. But it was worth it. “The combination shrunk all the tumors,” says Peter. “It was amazing.”

Three years later, Peter is—thankfully—still in remission. But he’s not the same person he was before the cancer.

“It changed me to go through this whole experience at Smilow,” he says. “When you go in for chemo, you see how many people are sick, what a desperate world it is. It hit me hard. I realized that I’m in a position to help people. Whether I was sick or not wasn’t important. The issue was: What could I do about it from this point on?”

Peter was determined to make a difference. As soon as he felt well enough, he and Sandra spoke to his lawyer about setting up a bequest for Smilow in their will.

“People may not realize that you don’t have to write a check to make a generous donation,” he says. “You can just carve out any amount you want in your will—exactly as if you were leaving money to a relative. But in the meantime, you have complete control of that money.”

Peter’s bequest will help future Smilow patients have great outcomes, as he did. But that’s not the only way he stays connected to that formerly hidden world of cancer patients.

“My hair started growing back after the chemo,” he says, “but I still keep it shaved today to honor others who are going through cancer treatment.”