<p>Longtime Gainesville residents Davis and Judi Rembert have donated $5 million to help fund the new Shands at the University of Florida Cancer Hospital now under construction on Archer Road.</p>
<p>Shands HealthCare officials have pegged the total cost of the new hospital at $388 million, with construction scheduled for completion in 2009.</p>
<p>The Remberts said the gift allows them to fulfill a lifelong commitment to health care.</p>
<p>"Judi and I recognize that this cancer hospital represents a major step toward speeding up a cure for cancer," Rembert said Wednesday. "It will bring together the existing research, patient care and clinical trials resources of UF and Shands and it will allow us to accomplish so much more in the future."</p>
<p>Both Judi and Davis Rembert were born in Alachua General Hospital, now Shands at AGH.</p>
<p>Davis Rembert grew up as the next-door neighbor of the late state Sen. William A. Shands, who was instrumental in funding the original teaching hospital and for whom it is named.</p>
<p>Rembert's great-great-grandfather Gabriel Phillip Thomas came to Gainesville in 1852 as the town's first physician.</p>
<p>Rembert, a UF alumnus, is the owner and chairman of Sprint Food Stores. He serves on the Shands board of directors and co-chairs the hospital fund-raising campaign with Jerry Davis.</p>
<p>In 1998, Jerry Davis and his wife, Judith, donated $5 million matched by the state to endow the research and clinical services of the UF Shands Cancer Center.Davis, a private investor and UF alumnus, has served on the Shands board of directors since 2001.</p>
<p>"The Remberts have made a very generous and thoughtful gift," Davis said. "Their commitment should serve as an example for others who are financially able to help in the battle against this disease that touches so many lives."</p>