“He gives you all he’s got,” says Joe Harris about his wife Veatrice’s doctor. Dr. Tom Shea’s awards, affiliations and published scientific papers would take pages to list. Yet it’s what’s inside his big heart that has made the most impact of all. J… Read More

Rick Brewer feels he was meant to volunteer here. He first became part of our growing family as a patient at UNC Hospitals: After Dr. Matthew Nielsen performed a radical prostatectomy to robotically remove a cancerous growth in his prostate, Rick spent a week at SECU Family House recovering.… Read More

We rely on the gifts, skills, and experiences of many wonderful volunteers to keep the House running, clean, and organized. Oftentimes, the front desk volunteers are the first people our guests meet before they check in. As time passes, our guests know to turn to them for just about any… Read More

On April 9th, a breakfast was held at the Chapel Hill Country Club to honor and celebrate the many contributions volunteers make to SECU Family House. A special Service Before Self Award was made to Wivi Sternbach, one of our early volunteers who passed away in November, in recognition of h… Read More

Family House guests often tell us the strength in our community helps them face adversity. During the recent six-inch snowfall in Chapel Hill, our guests’ strength as a community helped the House overcome difficulty. The House lost power for several hours and most of the staff and vol… Read More

It is every parent’s worse nightmare to get a call that your child is being medevaced to the hospital.  Susan and Bob Kavetski got this call: their healthy, 19- year-old son Sam, who had just finished his first semester at North Carolina State University, was being airlifted to UN… Read More

Last fall, Migdalia got a call that her beloved grandson, Jean Ramos, was in a terrible car accident while driving thought Fayetteville, North Carolina.  He sustained a severe brain injury and was in a coma for the first 20 days after the accident. Right after the accident, Migdalia hop… Read More

As Lynn tells it, she’s not given up yet. She has a whole lot of life left to live as far as she’s concerned. Diagnosed with cystic fibrosis soon after birth, this attractive and petite 47 year old received a double lung transplant in 2002. In 2012 she had a sarcoma removed by UN… Read More

Caregivers play a significant role at Family House, whether they are the spouse, son, daughter, adult grandchild, aunt, grandparent - or in Betty Hollingsworth's case, loyal friend.  Betty's friend Pat Polera was diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukemia and has had three bone marrow tran… Read More

The 8th annual Carolina Ball had record attendance and raised over $200,000 - also a record. That's enough to fully cover the cost to operate 6.5 of our 40 rooms for an entire year at Family House! More than 350 generous friends gathered on September 19th at the Carolina Club to raise funds… Read More