LEWISTON -- The man known to millions as "Dr. McDreamy" returned to the place of his birth on Monday to announce a new center designed to help cancer patients live long enough to see their dreams come true.

Patrick Dempsey, who stars as heartthrob-in-scrubs Dr. Derek Shepherd on the ABC medical drama "Grey's Anatomy," helped describe plans for a support and information center for cancer patients and their families at Central Maine Medical Center.

Although it will be named for him -- the Patrick Dempsey Center for Cancer Hope & Healing -- it was inspired by his mother. Amanda Dempsey has been treated for ovarian cancer three times at CMMC and is now cancer-free, Dempsey told a crowd of about 60 media members and medical staff at the hospital.

When he was first dealing with his mother's illness about 10 years ago, the Lewiston-born Dempsey said he felt overwhelmed trying to get information about the disease and sorting out options for assistance and care.

He thought there should be one place where cancer patients and their caregivers could go for a broad array of help, from transportation to support groups and information about insurance issues.

"For a family to get a cancer diagnosis is devastating, and all the information out there can be overwhelming," said Dempsey, 42, dressed in a blue suit with an open-collar light-blue shirt. "A lot of the Web sites I went to just didn't have enough information.

"So I talked to my sister about a place where people could go for all this type of information and help. Knowledge is power." The center won't be open to the public until March 31, but its Web site, dempseycenter.org, is up now.

Dempsey's sister, Mary Dempsey, works at the hospital and will be coordinator of the center, which will be housed in existing hospital facilities. Dempsey is one of its primary financial supporters, although he would not say how much money he's contributing.

Dempsey said he was "nervous" to speak on such a serious issue and one so close to his family, and his voice was a little hoarse during his two-minute-long remarks. He had flown overnight from Los Angeles and had a visible stubble of beard, and was headed back to L.A. Monday afternoon.

His usually perfectly coiffed hair looked a little mussed. When his sister presented him with a baseball cap with the center's logo, she said, "Here, for your hair," to which Dempsey replied, "Well, it was a red-eye." A few hospital staffers clicked photos of the actor, who has appeared on People Magazine's "Sexiest Man Alive" list. When it came time for questions from the audience, radio host Lori Voornas of Portland Top 40 station WJBQ (97.9 FM) asked, "Do you need a ride to the airport?" Dempsey was born at CMMC, grew up in Turner and Buckfield, and has a home in Harpswell. He spent last Christmas in Harpswell with his wife, three children, and other family members.

He worked out details of his role in the cancer center during the recent Hollywood writer's strike, which shut down production of "Grey's Anatomy" for several months beginning last fall. Now he's back to shooting the show, and happy about it.

Dempsey said he isn't planning to leave "Grey's Anatomy" any time soon, but when he does, he'd like to act in movies and produce films, including an idea he has for something involving living in a lighthouse in Maine. After the press conference, Dempsey spoke for about 30 minutes. He answered questions about his career and the center with equal comfort, but was careful to keep the center the central focus.

He said his title of "Dr. McDreamy" has its ups and downs. The hunky role of "Dr. McDreamy" shot him to stardom after some 15 years or so struggling for leading parts, and his recent financial success makes it "much easier" for him to provide funding for the cancer center than it would have been a decade ago.

But he also realizes he could be typecast as a romantic lead/hunk-type, and he'd like to do more than that.

"I'm just happy to be working, and I think after having some success early in my career (in the 1980s teen films 'Can't Buy Me Love' and 'Loverboy') and then having to really work at it, I appreciate it more now," Dempsey said. "But I know after 'Grey's Anatomy' is done, overcoming (typecasting) will be something I'll have to work at."

Dempsey realizes his name will help draw attention to the center, and he's comfortable with that. But he also said he takes having his name attached very seriously, and that his involvement "would be hollow if it doesn't make people's lives better."