Dr. LeAnna Walton is a doer. Having spent many years taking care of our children, teaching at Turner and Northside elementary schools and serving almost 20 years as principal at Palmyra Heights Elementary, she is now taking care of those needing comfort from cancer.
Every month Dr. Walton donates $1,000 to a special fund at Phoebe Foundation. The money is used to help cancer patients needing a little extra relief from pain. Dr. Walton knows about the pain first hand. She is a cancer survivor.
Today Dr. Walton is cancer free but she does not for a moment forget the people she saw in pain. When undergoing treatment, she learned that one particular lotion seemed to help soothe her burned skin. She soon realized that others did not have that healing lotion. “Even if someone is on Medicaid, that doesn’t pay for things that will just make people more comfortable,” she explains.
One day she noticed a woman in a wheelchair and felt the woman would be more comfortable if she had a blanket. “Some patients just don’t have any way to get these things that will make them more comfortable,” she says.
“From everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required,” Dr. Walton says. “As long as I am able, I will.”
For more information on how you can help others and get involved, please contact Phoebe Foundation at 229-312-GIVE.
A native of Bainbridge, Dr. Walton moved to Albany in 1964 when she married Jerry Walton, a professor at Darton College who died in 1997.
Since retirement, Dr. Walton has traveled and enjoyed leadership roles as state president and regional director of the Delta Kappa Gamma Society. And, she is proud to be working on her ninth year with a personal trainer. She is also proud to see the accomplishments made by many of her former students – including Jay McAfee, a radiation oncology physician at Phoebe.
