When Christmas Day arrives this year, Claude Scauflaire won’t be sitting down to a holiday meal with his family in Arlington, Texas. Instead, he will be spending the holiday season with his new “family” at the American Cancer Society’s Hope Lodge in Atlanta.
Scauflaire is being treated for prostate cancer at Radiotherapy Clinics of Georgia, and his six weeks of treatment must continue uninterrupted through Christmas and the New Year. He will be joining about 20 other cancer patients and their caregivers at Hope Lodge, who hail from all over the country and are in treatment that can’t stop for the holidays.
Hope Lodges provide homes away from home for cancer patients and caregivers free of charge. The lodges offer cheery public spaces where patients can enjoy the company of other patients and provide and receive support; private areas for patients to reflect and read; large kitchens and communal dining rooms, and transportation assistance to and from treatment. The cancer society operates 31 Hope Lodges in the U.S. and Puerto Rico, serving tens of thousands of patients and their caregivers a year.
Without the free housing offered by Hope Lodges, many patients say they would not be able to receive regular cancer treatment due to the cost of transportation and staying in a hotel for the average six or seven-week treatment regimen. Last year alone, Hope Lodges served 43,000 patients and caregivers, providing more than 265,000 nights of free lodging and saving an estimated $38 million in hotel expenses. Hope Lodge in Atlanta served 739 guests, with savings of nearly $2.3 million.
Patients are referred to Hope Lodge by the cancer society’s national call center, ACS patient resource navigators at hospitals, and physicians and social workers at medical facilities where patients are diagnosed and treated. Adult patients must live at least 40 miles away from their treatment facility and be in active cancer treatment to qualify to stay at Hope Lodge. Because of the demand, there is often a waiting list; guests are accepted on a first-come, first-served basis.
But Hope Lodges provide much more than a place to stay. They give help and hope to cancer patients and their families. They are warm, caring places where patients and caregivers can feel at home and get the support they need to get through their cancer experiences, and where they are free from worry about where to stay or how to pay for it. They can focus on the most important thing: getting well.
In Atlanta, Scauflaire will join other families and caregivers at Hope Lodge for Christmas dinner (served by former cancer patients who have stayed there), caroling around a piano, and other holiday festivities. We at the American Cancer Society know all the decorations and merriment in the world can’t take the place of being with loved ones for the holidays. But we are privileged to be able to provide some comfort and joy to our guests at this special time of the year.
