BJC employee gives back to the organization that saved her life

In 2020, Allie Dudenhoeffer received chemotherapy treatment through BJC HealthCare for Hodgkin lymphoma, a type of cancer that develops in the immune system. It had been a tough and scary ordeal for Allie, who found out that she had a cancerous mass in her chest after rushing to the emergency room with chest pain and difficulty breathing, but reliably, she went in every other week for nearly five months for treatment. She lost her hair, some of her mobility and, after she developed lung complications due to one of her medications, switched treatments and endured severe bone pain.

Although she still had some chemotherapy to finish, in March, Allie finally received the news she had been hoping for: she was cancer-free.

Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

Moved to Make a Difference

For the rest of her chemotherapy treatments, Allie had to go to the infusion center alone. To prevent the spread of the virus, patients were not allowed to have visitors.

The nurses, Allie says, became her friends instead.

“I really felt like they were my heroes at that time,” Allie remembers. "They were risking their lives at that moment so that I could receive treatment. I received so much compassion during that time. They made everything feel normal while the world didn’t seem normal at all.”

After chemotherapy, while the world was still gripped by COVID, Allie began contemplating the path she was on. She was employed as an accountant with a local corporation, but her experience with BJC HealthCare stuck with her. Allie fondly remembered the nurses who kept her company during those final chemotherapy treatments. She also felt thankful for the tumor review board that BJC HealthCare shares with Siteman Cancer Center. This partnership meant her treatment was looked at by some of the leading cancer experts in the country.

As a patient, Allie was able to experience BJC HealthCare’s extraordinary care firsthand, and she knew that she wanted to be a part of providing that care to somebody else, even if wasn’t in a clinical setting.

“The quality of care really made the difference for me in my treatment,” Allie says. “It was the best of what could have been a bad experience. It really inspired me to want to work for BJC because the people are just that good. I wanted to partner with some of the clinicians to provide this care to someone else in my same position.”

In November 2022, Allie was hired by BJC HealthCare as a Senior Financial Analyst at Barnes-Jewish St. Peters Hospital. “I really feel like I’m able to make a difference in how we treat patients at BJC by doing my job,” says Allie, who also volunteers with the Barnes-Jewish St. Peters & Progress West Foundation. “I can focus on financial excellence so that our doctors and nurses can focus on caring for our patients.”

To learn more about cancer care available through BJC HealthCare, visit BJC.org/medical-services/cancer