Why Maxwell Nowak
Gives Back

At an age when most kids were just starting to think about their futures, Nowak had his professional calling crystallize while wading through the fog of cancer treatment. By the time he entered remission at age 12, he realized that “there’s so much good that is done there; there are people who need a hand and need someone to help them through this process.” 

This slow-burn epiphany led Nowak to nursing school at Colby Sawyer College in New London, N.H., specifically because of the college’s close relationship with Dartmouth Health and its “exceptional oncology nursing department.” While he went in with an open mind about specialties, cancer care was the obvious choice. “This is where it started. This is where I wanted to continue,” he says. 

Today, Nowak is a nurse at Dartmouth Cancer Center, working on the same unit where he completed his Colby Sawyer senior practicum—supporting patients through journeys he understands intimately. 

“When I was going through my treatment, support meant everything for me,” Nowak reflects. “Cancer can be very alienating, very isolating.” While he’s mindful not to project his own lived experience onto others, it still shapes how he cares for patients.  

It’s also why he gives his time to The Prouty, northern New England’s largest community fundraising event, which raises funds for Dartmouth Cancer Center. Every July, you will find him volunteering; setting up tents, managing logistics, or just doing whatever needs to be done behind the scenes. 

The first time he volunteered, he’d just moved to the Upper Valley and knew little about the event. “I heard there was this big thing for cancer, and I’d always really enjoyed volunteering, so I was like, ‘Yeah, I’m not doing anything that week.” What he discovered changed his perspective entirely. “I didn’t realize that it was founded by nurses from my unit,” he says.  

The Prouty began in 1982 when four Cancer Center nurses, inspired by the courage of their patient, Audrey Prouty, committed to cycling 100 miles through the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Since then, thousands of passionate people have come together each year to bike, walk, row, golf, and more to follow their example and go all in to end cancer. 

For Nowak, The Prouty’s power lies in the visible act of solidarity in going beyond oneself. “There’s no way to describe that feeling.” Last year, The Prouty raised more than $10 million for cancer research, patient care, and support services—the most money ever raised in its 44-year history.  

As a nurse, Nowak has seen firsthand how cancer treatments have accelerated in recent years. Early in his career as an oncology nurse, he pursued specialized training in stem cell transplants, a procedure with the goal of total remission, depending on a patient’s particular diagnosis and disease burden. He’s thrilled to see new, emerging immunotherapies—ones that he only heard whispered about as a pediatric cancer patient—be put into practice at the Cancer Center. These include CAR T-cell therapy, which modifies a patient’s own T-cells (a type of white blood cell) to fight their specific cancer. Pioneered at Dartmouth, this therapy is a way to potentially protect a patient against cancer for the rest of their life. 

When asked how he hopes his story might inspire others, Nowak grows philosophical. “I think it’s human nature to want to give back. I was put into a challenging situation, and…now I’m through it. I’m better. How can I take what I learned and turn that into good?”