Cancer survivor donates $20M to U-Kansas hospital

The widow of an H&R Block founder donated $20 million Tuesday to the University of Kansas Hospital's cancer program, where she was successfully treated for breast cancer this year.

"I feel so lucky and so blessed that I can do this," Annette Bloch told hospital employees as she announced the gift. "I know that if my husband were alive, he would be just thrilled that I am."

Bloch said she was trying to pay a debt she and her husband owed to those who helped them overcome cancer. The new donation is believed to be the largest individual gift to a hospital in Kansas or the Kansas City area.

Richard Bloch, a founder of Kansas City, Mo.-based H&R Block Inc., was diagnosed in 1978 with terminal lung cancer but survived until 2004, when he died of heart failure.

Annette Bloch said she hoped the donation would help get the Kansas Cancer Center designated as a National Cancer Institute. The cancer center, which is blended with the hospital's cancer program, would then be able to attract more grants, clinical trials and research programs.

The Blochs established the R.A. Bloch Cancer Foundation in 1980, helping cancer patients get information and establishing survivor parks around the nation.