Sandy died at age 53 on March 6, 2000, after living with cancer for half of her life. Between treatments, she spent most of her last two years traveling the country, speaking at Corvette events, raising money for the American Cancer Society.

Late in 1997, at age 51, Sandy was undergoing rigorous chemotherapy for a recurrence of breast cancer that had spread to her lymph system. During the infusions, she would think happy thoughts.  These thoughts always included traveling with her husband, Ben, in her beloved 1963 Corvette convertible. The months of treatments dragged on. During each session her mind would wander farther, to distant Corvette shows, where she would speak about cancer - about detection and prevention and research - and she would raise money for the American Cancer Society. 

The images became more vivid, and, without realizing it, she wasn't daydreaming any longer, she was planning!

She told Ben, "I know this recurrence is NOT a good thing. As soon as I'm done with this course of treatment, and while I'm still able, I want to sell the '63, get a C5 [the newest model], and go on a tour of the country, hitting all the major Corvette shows, speaking whenever I have the opportunity, distributing cancer information and raising money for the American Cancer Society. Whatever it takes, I'm going to find a way!"

Sandy became focused on making the Corvettes Conquer Cancer Tour a reality! Looking back on it later, she would laugh and say that the idea was "drug induced"!

Corvettes Conquer Cancer was born!

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In a nutshell, Sandy and Ben spent the last two years of Sandy's life covering 50,000 miles, living out her "drug induced" dream: the Corvettes Conquer Cancer Tour.

In her memory, Ben has continued with the Tour to the extent that earning a living will permit. By the Spring of 2006, the trusty '97 C5 had reached 200,000 miles. It was retired (temporarily) to the National Corvette Museum on April 22, 2006 after 201,370 miles when, through donations, it was replaced by the present 2006 C6. Ben moved to Decatur Alabama in 2009 and had covered 286,000 miles in the 2006 by the start of the 2019 season.

Sandy's mission became even more personal for Ben in the summer of 2015 with the diagnosis of prostate cancer, based on a routine PSA test and subsequent biopsy. He had NO SYMPTOMS! It was removed by robotic surgery in August at Vanderbilt Medical Center in Nashville. 6 subsequent tests over 40 months have found the PSA level to be "undetectable"!
Men: be sure to get regular PSA tests!