About Karen's House of Hope:

Karen’s House of Hope (opening in early summer 2008) is located across the parking lot from the Cancer Care Center at the Brunswick Campus of Southeast Georgia Health System.  This close proximity gives persons the opportunity to come before or after their treatment for rest, comfort, education, prayer, encouragement, and other needs.  The office for the Cancer Network of Hope is located in Karen’s House.  There are also two bedrooms available for out of town persons to help defray transportation and housing costs during treatment (on a first come – space available basis).

Why Karen's House:

Karen Milburn was a greatly loved parapro with the Glynn County School System who was in need of an experimental bone marrow treatment at M. D. Anderson in the early 1990’s.  Originally, the insurance company refused to pay for the treatment, so her church, her co-workers, and her friends rolled up their sleeves to raise funds for Karen and her family.  Over $70,000 was raised before the insurance company reversed its decision and decided to pay for her treatment.  Some of the funds were used to help pay for housing, travel, and other expenses not covered by insurance, but the bulk of the funds stayed in a bank account waiting for a meaningful cause.  These funds were used to purchase the house being used by FaithWorks’ Network of Hope.

While the bone marrow treatment was not successful for Karen, lessons learned from Karen’s treatment have benefited others who have come after her.  The house is named for Karen to honor her for her courage to fight and to celebrate the community spirit which stretched itself to care for one of its own.