Media contact: Hannah Echols
DeDee and Donnie BushDonnie and Delores “DeDee” Bush have committed a legacy gift to the University of Alabama at Birmingham Comprehensive Diabetes Center (UCDC) in the Marnix E. Heersink School of Medicine. The gift will fund the William Arthur Duncan Endowment, named after DeDee Bush’s grandfather.
The endowment will support the center’s mission to perform cutting-edge research, train future clinicians and researchers and develop novel treatment approaches. Donnie Bush, who was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in 1968, remembers how daunting the diagnosis was at the time.
“Diabetes research was still in such early stages when I was first diagnosed,” he said. “Insulin had only been around for about 40 years, and single-use syringes were just becoming popular in treatment plans for patients.”
In 1975, the Bush’s moved to Birmingham for DeDee Bush to pursue her degrees in medical technology and computer and informational sciences at UAB. While in Birmingham, Donnie Bush visited UAB’s then-new Diabetes Research and Education Hospital, located in the Buris R. Boshell Diabetes Building. There he learned how to best manage his disease through several educational opportunities offered to him from diabetes specialists. Learning to manage diabetes in a healthy way was a new experience for him.
“All of the information and care I received was totally different than anything I had ever experienced before. I was so grateful to the entire medical center and their holistic treatment of diabetes,” he said.
Donnie and DeDee Bush point to their experience with UAB’s diabetes care as the starting point for their decision to give a legacy gift to the UCDC. Later, Donnie Bush also would receive a bypass surgery at UAB. Their positive clinical and academic experiences, paired with an unexpected inheritance from her grandfather, energized DeDee Bush, who knew that she wanted to do something special with the funds she received.
Make a powerful and lasting difference to UAB programs that mean the most to you through planned giving. If you would like to learn more and explore your options, call 205-996-7533 or email plannedgiving@uab.edu.
A legacy gift is a donation that often is earmarked within a will or other estate plans. Legacy gifts can be a dollar amount, an item of value or even a percentage of assets. For Donnie and DeDee Bush, they knew this was the route they wanted to go.
“You do not have to be wealthy to give, especially to UAB,” said DeDee Bush. “With UAB, you know that every penny you give will be maximally and wisely used for your cause — for us, that was diabetes research and the search for a curative therapy.”
Read more about their gift here.