Messages of hope support patients at Altru Cancer Center

GRAND FORKS — An East Grand Forks business owner is eagerly waiting to find out if he is officially cancer-free. Optimistic, he credits the medical care at the Altru Cancer Center for taking care of him and his family through chemo and radiation. What may look like an ordinary window at Altru Hospital is a window of hope to patients at the cancer center. "Everything from there on out was a piece of cake," said Dan Dahl, a tonsil cancer patient. Dahl is referring to the signs of inspiration he saw taped in the window each morning as he walked into the Altru Cancer Center. The words may have been different each day, but the message was the same. "There is life after cancer," Dahl said. Dahl, who is the owner of Dahl Funeral Home in East Grand Forks, battled tonsil cancer this summer. "Haven't had tonsils in 61 years, but I had tonsil cancer," Dahl said. Dan Dahl and Theresia Rieger at Altru Hospital on Thursday, Oct. 29, 2026. Matt Henson