Dr. Peter De Blank and Dr. Robin Norris are both St. Baldrick’s Scholars. They also happen to be married. Read on for a love story that’s sure to make your Valentine’s Day awwwesome.
It all started with a conversation in front of the med school library, then a first date at the natural history museum.
Or maybe not.
Whether that was actually the official first date between Dr. Robin Norris and Dr. Peter De Blank is hotly debated by the two scientists.
Peter says, quite emphatically, that it was definitely not a date. His wife begs to differ.
“What else is it when somebody you don’t know very well asks you to spend the day with them?”
Whether or not that was their first date, obviously their day examining dinosaur bones went well. The doctors tied the knot in May 2005.
Robin and Peter say it’s nice to be married to a fellow pediatric oncologist. If you have a bad day, the other half really does understand. It’s helpful to have that in-house consult too.
“It’s really nice. It’s like, ‘What would you do or what do you think?’ It’s just really relaxed and you know where the other person is coming from when you ask for their help and their advice,” Robin said. “I’m really lucky because he’s really smart.”
Robin is a sounding board for Peter when he’s chewing on a potential research question. And when it comes time to write, Peter is “a great editor,” Robin said.
“It’s wonderful to have that sort of a partnership as a resource,” Peter said.
Dr. Robin Norris and Dr. Peter De Blank with their daughters.
Robin works in oncology and hematology at Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio, and directs the hospital’s Pediatric Developmental Therapeutics Program.
Read more about Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital and their involvement with St. Baldrick’s >
As a St. Baldrick’s Scholar, she’s studying how to harness a certain enzyme inhibitor to develop new therapies for kids with cancer.
She followed in the footsteps of her father, who was a pediatric oncologist. She used to go to work with him when she was little and that experience stuck with her.
“I remember what a team enterprise it was,” she said. “Everyone really worked together. The nurses, the secretaries, the doctors — they were all working together to help kids in a really tangible way that I could understand as a kid.”
Peter’s start in medicine was a bit more roundabout. He always wanted to help kids and was a high school teacher before going to medical school. Peter now works at the same hospital as his wife and is a pediatric hematologist and oncologist with a specific interest in neuro-oncology.
Along with being a Scholar who studies how to better map brain tumors, Peter is also a shavee℠ with St. Baldrick’s.
The more he got to know Robin and watch her career path, the more he admired her. He said that in medicine you often follow someone else’s model. They could be your dad, a mentor, or even your valentine.
“I’m just very lucky to also have fallen in love with my model,” he said.
Show researchers like Robin and Peter some love this Valentine’s Day. Contribute to the lifesaving work they do every day.
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