SAN ANTONIO – Every year, more than 9,000 cancer patients come to the San Antonio area for lifesaving treatment.
The American Cancer Society knows, but there’s one thing they don’t know.
There’s no telling how many people never make it to San Antonio, and why they can’t could be for one heartbreaking reason: they just can’t afford hotel and travel expenses.
“I was diagnosed on March 4, 2024, with breast cancer. I underwent a lumpectomy in April of last year,” Elvia Gibbs told KSAT. “I had to undergo five months of aggressive chemotherapy, and I had to undergo three weeks of radiation therapy.”
Gibbs traveled from McAllen to Houston for therapy. Radiation treatments landed her there for three full weeks.
“And I started looking up Airbnb’s, hotel stays nearby and nothing was under $3,000,” Gibbs said.
Luckily, Houston had a couple of options that offered free or discounted lodging for adult cancer patients.
San Antonio doesn’t have that option, but that’s about to change.
“We broke ground just a couple of weeks ago,” American Cancer Society National Board Member and Methodist Healthcare Ministries CEO Jaime Wesolowski said. “We will have beautiful facilities. It’s state-of-the-art.”
Wesolowski oversees the two organizations. San Antonio’s discounted lodging option will soon become Hope Lodge San Antonio.
However, his closest connection to the project is personal. Wesolowski, too, is a cancer survivor.
“When I was getting my treatment, it was eight weeks of radiation,” Wesolowski said. “It was every day, Monday through Friday.”
He saw firsthand the toll that travel takes on families battling cancer.
When Wesolowski helped start the Central and South Texas American Cancer Society Board in 2018, Hope Lodge became his dream project.
There are more than 30 Hope Lodges nationwide, but only three in Texas. San Antonio will be the fourth.
With construction underway, the new facility will be completed within 18 to 24 months.
The lodge will have 40 suites, designed for connection between groups of patients and groups of caregivers.
“There are two very, very large kitchens for people to come and cook their lunches and their dinners and socialize and just enjoy fellowship,” Wesolowski said.
That fellowship becomes just as important to patients as the financial relief.
“When you get to meet other cancer warriors who are going through it — and you don’t feel alone and you feel understood — you feel heard,” Gibbs said.
When asked if that sense of peace and relief helped her beat cancer, she said,
Gibbs also believes the camaraderie with other patients helped her in her fight.
“It gave me that ‘want to’ (to) finish this out,” Gibbs said. “And to know that I was going to be OK. It 100% contributed to the fight.”
Gibbs was in attendance for Hope Lodge’s San Antonio groundbreaking.
She started her own breast cancer organization. Gibbs said some of the women she helps in South Texas get their medical treatment in San Antonio.
For people like that, Gibbs said Hope Lodge will be life-changing.
The focus now for the American Cancer Society is raising the rest of the funds.
“We have raised the money to do the construction, but the total capital campaign is $30 million,” Wesolowski said. “We’ve raised $18 million so far, and we need to raise another $12 million. And that’s really for sustainability. We don’t charge anybody anything, so you can imagine it’s about $1 million a year of expenses.”
The City of San Antonio donated $1 million to the project, to the surprise of the American Cancer Society.
“American Cancer Society told me it’s the first time a city has ever given a large gift like that,” Wesolowski said. “It shows how much San Antonio cares.”
The $1 million donation will also help with cancer education, Wesolowski said.
“We’re going to have a community center where we can have all the hospitals and all the oncology groups come in and do classes,” Wesolowski said. “ThriveWell will come in to do classes, so it’s not only just for people who have to make that drive. It’ll be an educational center for cancer in San Antonio.”
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