My Nonprofit Reviews

A Shelter for Cancer Families was truly a blessing for my situation. I am very fortunate in the sense that my cancer has left me capable of taking care of myself. I don’t have the constant need for a caregiver to look after me and help me with my daily activities. Unfortunately, most of the housing available for cancer patients requires you to have a caregiver with you 24/7 in order to stay at their facilities. As I began going down the list of options on Joe’s List, my options were quickly reduced from many to very few.
I applied to the few organizations that would allow me to, but unfortunately no one had space and I was placed on waiting lists for those few groups. I would be driving nearly 1,600 miles to Houston and spending over two months away from home and I still didn’t have housing secured for my stay during treatment.
I managed to get a reduced cost hotel room through the American Cancer Society, but I only had a room on a weekly basis and had the possibility that I would have to change hotels each week. My treatments at the MD Anderson Proton Center were going to take 8 weeks, and I knew changing hotels was going to get tiring soon. They were also not able to offer the discounted rooms for the entirety of my treatments, leaving me on my own for the remaining few weeks of my schedule.
Fortunately, after two weeks of hotel life, I received a phone call from Melissa at ASCF letting me know that they had an opening and I could get into the apartment immediately. I cannot describe the amount of stress and anxiety that disappeared when I received that phone call. I was no longer burdened with having to pack up my stuff into a rental car to move every weekend. I could buy more than just a week’s worth of groceries at a time without worrying about throwing out everything in the refrigerator at the end of the week. I also had the security of a gated community with limited access to the apartments when I came back from my daily treatments. I would now be only a few minutes away from the Proton Center and no longer had to make the daily commute from Katy, Sugarland, or wherever I would end up before.
This organization takes steps to ensure the patients and their families staying in the ASCF apartments feel at home during their time in Houston. Any issues that came up with the apartment were quickly handled through Jennifer and the building management. The ASCF volunteers sacrifice their own time to help their guests celebrate the major holidays such as Thanksgiving and Christmas. Even though I was by myself in the apartment, I never felt like I was on my own. I never took advantage of the Patient Navigators available to me during my stay, but I appreciated the knowledge that they were there and available if needed.
When I was first diagnosed with my cancer I was completely blindsided and overwhelmed. Knowing that there are organizations such as ASCF helping patients get through such an extremely difficult experience gives me an amazing amount of hope moving forward as a cancer survivor. As I stated before, ASCF was a blessing for me and deserve a great amount of support to continue providing aid to other survivors and their families.