Making a Difference: Joe and Peggy Wiederholt

A UW professor battling cancer spent his last days trying to make a difference in the lives of other patients. 27 News' Mitch Weber met his wife who nominated him for this segment. What we found out, she's just as much an example of a person making a difference.

Peggy Wiederholt has full-filled a dream of her husband's and so far that dream has changed the life of thousands of cancer patients across the United States.

Five years ago this spring, Peggy lost the love of her life to colon cancer. Her husband Joe taught at the UW as a pharmacy professor.

In 2000, Joe Wiederholt took time of from teaching to start cancer treatment. During that time, Hoe realized he wasn't prepared for his journey living with the disease. He needed something to guide him and doctors didn't have the answers. So, Joe decided to use what he was experiencing to figure out his good days and bad days. He used a pain chart to create his own scale. Joe called it the Write Track. Since then Peggy has twice revised the book. In it... words of inspiration, pages to keep a journal, and testimonials from cancer patients all across Wisconsin. Joe died on Memorial day of 2000. In his last months of life, Peggy and Joe used to come here on this bench under this tree at the UW Arboretum.

Even without her husband next to her, Peggy works to keep his passion to help others understand the journey that lies ahead.

4/20/2006 - WKOW 27