Dolly Parton volunteered to be an experimental cancer drug test subject before she died: ‘My sister was always thinking of others’

Dolly Parton‘s younger sister Stella has revealed that the iconic country singer spent her last days on Earth trying to help others by volunteering to receive experimental cancer drugs. In a Facebook tribute shared yesterday, Stella said her sister knew there “was no hope for her”, but acted “in the hope of helping others in the future.”

In her post, Stella paid tribute to a sister like none other, explaining that the best way to honor her memory was by doing your best to help others: “if you want to honor her legacy, show more kindness, lift others up and give more of your time and resources as she continued to do to the very end.”

Stella also revealed Dolly’s philosophy on an often depressing world: “I would criticize and complain about it, and she would laugh and say; “shoot Tedda, we’ve got more important things to do than worry about their silly asses.””

“What the world saw is exactly who she was”

Dolly died surrounded by her family at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center in Nashville, Tennessee, after what her representatives described as a “brief battle with cancer”, which hadn’t been publicly disclosed before her death. But even when staring down the end of her life, Stella explained that she was still focused on the good she could do in the world:

“My sister was one of the most generous, thoughtful and kind people I’ve ever known. What the world saw is exactly who she was, so much so, she told me recently that if there was no hope for her, she would still allow her medical team to try experimental drugs in the hope of helping others in the future.”

The potential side effects of volunteering for an experiment like this are no joke. A study in the Value in Health Journal lists extreme fatigue, gastrointestinal distress, blood disorders, hair loss, and musculoskeletal pain as commonly experienced by patients undergoing these treatments. However, it seems that while Dolly had the will to undergo these experiments, she passed before they could be conducted.

This wasn’t Dolly’s first involvement with medical science. During the COVID pandemic, she personally provided core funding for what would eventually become the Moderna vaccine, going on to receive the shot and saying: “I am a very proud girl today that I had anything at all to do with something that will help pursue this crazy pandemic.”

The fact that she was willing to spend what remaining time she had suffering in the hope of helping others only underlines the kind of woman she was. Stella said her sister “left the world a better place by being in it” and that, “If anyone gets to heaven I’m sure she made it right on time. I know she’s showing out big time, in all her sparkles and shine.”