It was a long trip for a 15-year-old to make - but for Lowell Andreas, there wasn't a choice. His mother needed cancer treatment in Rochester . They lived near Cedar Rapids , Iowa . So he drove her there himself.

"I didn't need a driver's license then," he shares. "We stayed in a motel in Rochester for three weeks so she could have treatment." At 16, he lost his mother to breast cancer. That happened a long time ago-now 83, he still recalls a lesson he learned from her.

"There was a family in town - a large family-who-well, they didn't have much. My mother would buy groceries and send me over to leave them on their porch. She was always inclined to give to others, and I learned by her example."

Sharing is a lesson he learned well. A $4 million gift from the Andreas family will go toward building a proposed cancer center at Immanuel St. Joseph's - Mayo Health System.

" Mankato has been our home," Lowell says of his family. He and his wife, Nadine, made the decision together to support the cancer center before she passed away in September. "She was completely in favor of the gift," he says. "When you've been married for 62 years, you don't make decisions like this alone."

Lowell and Nadine moved to Mankato in 1947. He began a successful career by purchasing a soybean extraction plant that he named Honeymead, which became one of largest such plants in the nation. In the late 1960s, he was named president of Archer Daniels Midland. Now retired, he maintains an office at ADM in Mankato .

"Nadine and I were married when we got to Mankato , but we grew up here - financially and socially," he shares. "We could have lived anywhere, but Mankato is home."

"We were proud to be able to help our friends, our employees and the people here have access to a regional cancer center in Mankato ," Lowell says. "This community has been good to both of us, and we wanted to give back. No one should have to travel far when they feel sick."

The Andreas Cancer Center will be part of a $35 million upgrade to ISJ facilities which also includes a new heart center. ISJ's medical oncology services have grown from a humble mobile home with one oncologist in 1999 to five oncologists who are currently housed in the former business office. Last year more than 19,100 cancer procedures were provided to 2079 patients from southern Minnesota and northern Iowa .

"Our goal is to provide patients with the best quality of treatment so they don't have to travel to more distant facilities like the Mayo Clinic in Rochester ," says William Rupp, president and CEO at ISJ. "We are grateful to the Andreas family for getting this started."

Much fundraising, however, must be done to bring the full project to completion.

"What I learned about giving, I learned from my mother," Lowell said. "I hope our gift serves as an example so others give, too. I want to see Mankato have the best, top level medical care-right here.We have to work together to make it happen."