In what is believed to be the largest individual gift ever made to a hospital in the Kansas City area or the state of Kansas, philanthropist and civic leader Annette Bloch is donating $20 million to the University of Kansas Hospital cancer program.

The hospital immediately renamed its outpatient cancer area at its Westwood campus the Richard and Annette Bloch Cancer Care Pavilion. The name also will go on the radiation oncology building on the main campus south of 39th and Rainbow Boulevard.

Annette Bloch said her late husband, Richard (co-founder of H&R Block), had earmarked the funds to assist cancer patients through the R.A. Bloch Cancer Foundation Fund at the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation. The Blochs are longtime activists for improved cancer care, establishing the R.A. Bloch Cancer Foundation in 1980.

The foundation sponsors programs designed to motivate cancer patients to take control and learn about all of their options, so they can make educated decisions. The foundation was an early advocate for multidisciplinary care and among its services is a hotline for patients recently diagnosed with cancer to talk to others who have been through the same kind of cancer treatments and survived. They also have overseen the establishment of 24 Cancer Survivor Parks across North America and Canada, and have co-authored three books on cancer.

“Our passion for quality and compassionate cancer care and for Kansas City has come together in this support for KU Hospital’s cancer services,” said Mrs. Bloch, who publicly acknowledged she had been treated for breast cancer at the facility this year. “I have been all over the country advocating for cancer patients, and there is something special about the hospital’s services, this facility and the people who work here. It is wonderful that patients in Kansas City can receive quality cancer care in their own community. I have experienced their skill and compassion firsthand, and I wanted to give them the resources to do more through these incredible services.”

Mrs. Bloch is no stranger to philanthropy to the hospital. She made a surprise $1 million donation to the hospital when the Westwood facility opened in August 2007. She also has underwritten the Bloch Heart Rhythm Center at the hospital’s Center for Advanced Heart Care.

Bloch’s gift will be made to the University of Kansas Hospital’s partner in philanthropy—KU Endowment—to benefit the hospital.

“I feel this hospital is a special place and Kansas City is fortunate to have it,” Mrs. Bloch added.

Hospital officials say the funds will be used to expand and strengthen blood and marrow transplant, radiation oncology and breast cancer imaging. Read more.