Wichita ? A former Kansas lawmaker’s bout with cancer led him to donate $1 million toward research in his home state.

Frank Gaines, who served in both houses of the Legislature and is now a member of the Kansas Board of Regents, was treated for esophageal cancer last year at the Mayo Clinic.

“I can afford to do that, but a lot of people can’t,” said Gaines, 72, who lives in Hamilton.

The gift from Gaines and his wife, Beverly, was announced Thursday.

It will fund a professorship in Wichita for the Kansas University Cancer Center and will help bring early stage cancer drug trials to the Wichita area.

The new professor will be the medical director of the center’s oncology outpatient unit and will be responsible for developing a Phase I clinical trial research program.

Phase I is the earliest stage of human testing.

“These types of trials really represent the cutting edge,” said Roy Jensen, director of the Kansas Masonic Cancer Research Institute, the research arm of the Cancer Center.

Phase II and III testing already is available in Wichita through the Wichita Community Clinical Oncology program, a cooperative of doctors and hospitals throughout the state.

The gift is part of the Kansas Masonic Foundation’s Partnership for Life Campaign, which is trying to raise $15 million to support the research institute’s long-range plan.

The institute also is trying to earn designation as a cancer care center from the National Cancer Institute and has pledged to serve all of Kansas and the Midwest.

“We really want to be a different kind of cancer center,” Jensen said. “This is a great way to demonstrate that.”

The research institute’s push for federal designation also figured into Gaines’ decision.

“I’m a strong believer in higher education, and there’s all kinds of colleges and universities to help,” Gaines said. “But I think it’s very, very important to Kansas” to get the federal cancer center designation.