WAUWATOSA, Wis. — Kathy's House is celebrating 25 years of providing a home away from home for families who travel to Milwaukee to receive advanced medical care.
WATCH: Kathy's House marks 25 years supporting families traveling for medical care
The organization operates as a hospital guest house on the Milwaukee Regional Medical Center grounds, offering lodging and support to patients and their family members.
"We provide lodging and support for both patients and their family members who need to travel to Milwaukee for advanced medical care," Patty Metropulos, interim president and CEO of Kathy's House, said. "Most of the families who stay with us, they have one of their family members undergoing treatment for cancer, but we also have a number of folks who need an organ transplant or perhaps there was an accident of some sort."
Metropulos said the Milwaukee area's medical resources are easy to overlook for those who live nearby.
"If you live in Milwaukee, you kind of take for granted the health care resources we have in our own backyard, but we truly, on the Milwaukee Regional Medical Center grounds, are some of the most advanced treatments for cancer and other diseases really that you'll find in the state or the region," Metropulos said.
The organization was founded in honor of Kathy, who was being treated for lymphoma when she was inspired to act. While receiving care, she noticed that other patients around her did not have the same family support she did, and she felt compelled to change that.
"She really was so empathetic with her fellow cancer patients with her in the hospital that didn't nearly have the level of support that she had, and that just broke her heart," Metropulos said.
"She just thought that there has to be something that can be done," Metropulos said.
Kathy passed away in 2000. One year to the day after her death, her family opened Kathy's House in her honor. At the time, the Ronald McDonald House in Milwaukee served children exclusively, leaving a gap in support for adult patients and their families.
In the 25 years since opening, Kathy's House has served more than 25,000 people.
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