Sharing Wishes Fund Celebrates Five-Year Anniversary

Memorial’s Sharing Wishes Fund is celebrating five years and nearly 200 wishes granted. The Fund provides wishes for hospice patients across central Illinois. See some of the many wishes featured in this video provided by Mary Bretscher, MD, associate medical director for Memorial Home Services Hospice.

The wishes aren’t always extravagant, but the size of the wish never diminishes the impact on each person involved. For the patient, it’s a chance to fulfill a lifelong dream or enjoy special time with the people they care about. For the families, it’s a lasting memory that endures long after the passing of their loved one. To the donors and caregivers who make each wish a reality, it’s the satisfaction of knowing that they made a difference.

Each year, the Memorial Medical Center Foundation hosts the Hospice Gala, the sole event that provides funds for Sharing Wishes for the upcoming year. Attendees enjoy music, a plated meal and a keynote address. This year’s event features Don Yaeger, award-winning speaker and longtime associate editor for Sports Illustrated. He will share his first-hand experiences with some of the greatest sports legends in the world, including Walter Payton. Yaeger lived with Payton in the final weeks of his life while he co-wrote Payton’s autobiography which became one of Yaeger’s eight New York Times bestselling books. Yaeger’s journey with the Payton family forever connected him to the importance of hospice care.