American Cancer Society honors Duchossois family
The Northwest suburbs’ prominent Duchossois family of Arlington Park renown will be honored by the American Cancer Society today with a prestigious award previously won by such names as Lance Armstrong, Katie Couric, Sen. Ted Kennedy, President George H.W. Bush, Larry Hagman and Lawrence Welk.
The Medal of Honor for Philanthropy, to be awarded at the American Cancer Society’s national headquarters in Atlanta, recognizes The Duchossois Family Foundation for contributions that helped establish and grow a critical program of patient support services.
Patient Navigation Services, founded in the society’s Illinois division through a $5 million Duchossois family donation in 2003, helps steer patients through a program of support both during and after their intensive medical treatment.
“When you start to feel well and want to put it behind you ... that’s a very critical point in the process,” said Rita Forden, vice president of income development for the American Cancer Society’s Illinois division.
Among the other programs provided by Patient Navigation Services are lodging assistance, emotional support programs, a wig bank, access to cosmetologists to help with the side effects of chemotherapy and radiation treatments, insurance support, financial assistance and transportation.
Forden said she always instinctively knew that transportation could be a hardship for families seeking treatment but never realized how much of an impediment to care it was in some places until the issue was looked into further.
Kim Duchossois, the daughter of Arlington Park Chairman Richard Duchossois, said the roots of her family’s involvement with ACS lie in her mother Beverly’s death from cancer in 1980.
But it was several years later that the society reached out to the family about the possibility of assistance, the Barrington resident said.
While early donations by the family’s foundation focused on cancer research and the construction of buildings, Duchossois said she’s come to see the care provided by Patient Navigation Services as just as important.
As a result, many cancer patients today are having a vastly improved experience from the one her mother knew in the late ’70s.
“It was the most transformational project we could do,” Duchossois said. “My concern is that not everyone knows this is there for them. Access has increased but we have a ways to go.”
While the Duchossois family has contributed more than $11 million to ACS, the volunteerism of its members, like Kim, has helped raise at least another $11 million more.
Kim Duchossois said she is personally accepting the award in Atlanta along with her brother Craig, who’s also involved with another arm of ACS called CEOs Against Cancer.