I had the honor last Friday to visit the Baltimore Hope Lodge at the Harry & Jeanette Weinberg Campus of Hope on the University of Maryland-Baltimore campus. It's a wonderful and beautiful building designed to help cancer patients and their caregivers relax in a "home away from home".
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| Baltimore Hope Lodge. Image from http://www.cancer.org/Treatment/SupportProgramsServices/HopeLodge/Baltimore/index |
There are 31 Hope Lodges across the United States creating a home environment for cancer patients and their caregivers when away from their home receiving treatment. All Hope Lodges offer free temporary place to stay for as long as they need in order to receive the best possible treatment. The idea is simple: families always search for the best treatment but sometimes that means traveling hundreds if not thousands of miles away which can become incredibly expensive but free lodging makes a world of a difference!
The Baltimore Hope Lodge is situated near the University of Maryland Medical School and John's Hopkins Medical Center. When you walk into the Hope Lodge you immediately feel a sense of warmth and care. They have a large great room for families to eat and watch television, and a kitchen that allows them to make their own food or for volunteers to make dinners for all. Each patient and/or caregiver has their own private bedroom with full bathroom so they can have comfort away from the hospital/treatment center. To help them relax and keep their focus away from treatment, there is a courtyard, a rec room, and a library. The staff is incredibly nice and they want to make life as normal as possible for their guests.
All Hope Lodges are always looking for donations of food, books for the library, ink cartridges and even Christmas presents. If you are interested in donating to a Hope Lodge near you click here.
In order to create more free nights for patients and caregivers the American Cancer Society must continue to raise more money through events such as Relay For Life. To donate visit www.relayforlife.org and find a local event to donate to.
The Hope Lodge is by far one of my favorite patient services programs that the American Cancer Society offers and I hope to see more Hope Lodges built across the USA, especially in Virginia.
As always to find out more information about the American Cancer Society and other patient services programs visit cancer.org.
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Until We Find a Cure
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