{"id":149974,"date":"2026-06-15T21:05:58","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T01:05:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/?p=149974"},"modified":"2026-06-15T21:05:58","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T01:05:58","slug":"st-lukes-physician-is-climbing-high-to-support-ovarian-cancer-patients","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/?p=149974","title":{"rendered":"St. Luke\u2019s Physician Is Climbing High to Support Ovarian Cancer Patients"},"content":{"rendered":"

Photo caption: Rick Boulay, MD, has been putting in long hours at the St. Luke\u2019s Fitness & Sports Performance Center at St. Luke\u2019s West End Campus.<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Rick Boulay, MD, has been putting in long hours at the St. Luke\u2019s Fitness & Sports Performance Center at St. Luke\u2019s West End Campus, whipping himself into his best physical shape since college — and for a good cause.<\/p>\n

In July, the highly respected St. Luke\u2019s gynecologic-oncology surgeon will scale new heights as a physician and humanitarian as he treks up Peru’s Ausangate trail to the Machu Picchu summit.<\/p>\n

Ausangate is an arduous and rewarding climb spanning mountains, forests, glaciers and remote trails.\u00a0Dr. Boulay will make the demanding 10-day, 55-mile journey to raise awareness and donations for research and patient support alongside 20 fellow members of the National Ovarian Cancer Coalition. The not-for-profit\u2019s mission is to prevent, treat and end the scourge of ovarian cancer.<\/p>\n

During his quarter-century long (and counting) career as a gynecologic oncologic surgeon, Dr. Boulay has treated hundreds of women suffering from ovarian cancer, one of the female reproductive system\u2019s most challenging cancers to treat. He\u2019s dedicating his trip to the memory of patients who survived the cancer as well as those who succumbed to the disease. Some 25,000 women are diagnosed annually with ovarian cancer, whose overall five-year survival rate is about 50%.<\/p>\n

His motivation to tackle this daunting challenge stems also from his own personal experience as a cancer patient. Two years ago, Dr. Boulay was treated for prostate cancer, which runs in his family, by urologist Zachariah Goldsmith, MD, at St. Luke\u2019s. He\u2019s celebrating his good health with a nod to the lessons he has learned from his patients focusing on living each moment to the fullest.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is my year of saying yes to everything I might have declined in the past,\u201d he explains. So far, he has visited Morocco and Iceland, bought a sports car and restarted downhill skiing, leading up to the trip of a lifetime that he might otherwise have passed up.<\/p>\n

He was invited to join the trek by one of the first patients he treated for ovarian cancer in his career, who survived to later give birth to a now-23-year-old son, and he jumped at the opportunity.<\/p>\n

To be physically prepared for the trip, Dr. Boulay has been training at the gym under the guidance of Patrick Babin, exercise specialist, who has him working on increasing his endurance, strength and flexibility, while also losing weight.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never been a \u2018gym guy,\u2019 but I\u2019m really enjoying this and feel myself getting into better shape for the trip,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Dr. Boulay will leave his home in Allentown and fly to Cusco, Peru. There, he\u2019ll join the other members of the group to take time to adjust to the altitude. The Ausangate climb rises from 11,000 feet to the summit at 17,000 feet, which his higher than Dr. Boulay has ever stood on terra firma, and then descends to 8,000 feet. Since July will be winter there, the hikers may be hampered by snow, ice and freezing temperatures on the way up and then by flies and mosquitos at lower altitudes.<\/p>\n

The accomplished and popular vocalist, who has sung pop favorites, jazz standards and classical songs in venues throughout the Lehigh Valley, doubts he will be able to serenade his companions during their climb. \u201cI\u2019ll be happy to be able to breathe at the higher altitudes,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Despite the demands and inconveniences of the trek, including being away from family and work, and \u201cnot having a shower for two weeks,\u201d he\u2019s looking forward to it with an inner calm.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not nervous at all,\u201d he says. He\u2019s at peace with the anticipation of roughing it while helping raise funds and celebrating life moment-by-moment. It\u2019s a lesson, he admits, that took his cancer diagnosis for him to embrace.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery day is important,\u201d he says. \u201cWe aren\u2019t guaranteed many years here, and I want to live each one.\u201d<\/p>\n

To contribute to the National Ovarian Cancer Coalition via Dr. Boulay\u2019s hike, visit\u00a0give.ovarian.org\/perunewheights26\/rick-boulay<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

About St. Luke\u2019s<\/strong><\/p>\n

Founded in 1872, St. Luke\u2019s University Health Network (SLUHN) is a fully integrated, regional, non-profit network with annual net revenue of more than $4.5 billion. With 23,000+ employees at 16 hospital campuses and 350+ outpatient sites, it is the Lehigh Valley\u2019s biggest employer.<\/p>\n

The Network\u2019s service area includes 11 counties in two states: Lehigh, Northampton, Berks, Bucks, Carbon, Montgomery, Monroe, Schuylkill and Luzerne counties in Pennsylvania and Warren and Hunterdon counties in New Jersey. St. Luke\u2019s Children\u2019s Hospital is based at the Bethlehem Campus.<\/p>\n

Dedicated to advancing medical education, St. Luke\u2019s is the preeminent teaching hospital in central-eastern Pennsylvania. In partnership with Temple University, the Network established the Lehigh Valley\u2019s first and only four-year medical school. It also operates the nation\u2019s oldest continuously operated School of Nursing, established in 1884, and 60+ fully accredited graduate medical educational programs with 550+ residents and fellows. Additionally, the St. Luke\u2019s College of Health Sciences opened in 2026.<\/p>\n

In 2025, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services ranked St. Luke\u2019s #1 \u2013 ahead of Houston Methodist and Mayo Clinic, two of the nation\u2019s most prestigious institutions \u2013 as the nation\u2019s top health system for quality, safety and patient experience. This objective recognition, based on public data reported to the government, reaffirms St. Luke\u2019s preeminent position as THE BEST OF THE BEST among the most respected health care systems in the United States.<\/p>\n

St. Luke\u2019s has been named a Leapfrog Group and Healthgrades Top Hospital and a Newsweek World\u2019s Best Hospital. It is the only Lehigh Valley-based health care system to earn Medicare\u2019s five-star ratings (the highest) for quality, efficiency and patient satisfaction. In 2026, the Network earned straight A\u2019s from Leapfrog across all of its acute care hospitals. It has earned 100 Top Hospital designations from Premier 12 years in a row, including in 2026 when the Network was identified as THE #1 MEDIUM-SIZE HEALTH SYSTEM IN THE COUNTRY. Utilizing the Epic electronic medical record (EMR) system for both inpatient and outpatient services, the Network is a multi-year recipient of the Most Wired award recognizing the breadth of SLUHN\u2019s information technology applications such as telehealth, online scheduling and online pricing information.<\/p>\n

Information provided to TVL by:
\nSam Kennedy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Photo caption: Rick Boulay, MD, has been putting in long hours at the St. Luke\u2019s Fitness & Sports Performance Center at St. Luke\u2019s West End Campus. Rick Boulay, MD, has been putting in long hours at the St. Luke\u2019s Fitness & Sports Performance Center at St. Luke\u2019s West End Campus, whipping himself into his best … Continue reading St. Luke\u2019s Physician Is Climbing High to Support Ovarian Cancer Patients<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":149975,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\r\n\r\n{excerpt}\r\n\r\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[69,482],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-149974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-the-valley","category-press-release-2"],"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thevalleyledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Rick-Boulay.jpg?fit=672%2C372&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=149974"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149974\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":149976,"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149974\/revisions\/149976"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/149975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=149974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=149974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=149974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}