Storyteller: Peggy Dolan
When pigtailed little Kelly Anne was fighting leukemia, her mother, Peggy Dolan, spent the day and night in the pediatric ward. During those five long years, she still thought herself lucky. “My husband had a job, we had insurance, we could afford overnight parking,” she recalls. “A lot of kids would lie there alone because their parents didn’t have bus fare.”
The first Night Out With Meaning was held on November 11, 2010. Peggy Dolan joined as our first storyteller.
Peggy is Co-Founder and Executive Director of The Kelly Anne Dolan Memorial Fund. The Fund, founded in 1976 after the death of Peggy’s daughter, Kelly Anne, advocates for families with seriously ill, physically and cognitively challenged, or severely injured children nationwide through information and education. Financial assistance for needs not covered by insurance is provided to families whose children are living in or cared for in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. Families in crisis are referred to us by an extensive network of social workers, case managers, physical therapists, and healthcare professionals within hospitals, medical facilities, social service agencies, and treatment centers. The Fund has assisted more than 20,000 families in 35 years of operation.
A graduate of Chestnut Hill College, Peggy is Chair Emerita of the Board of Directors of the American Red Cross Blood Services; a board member of Mercy-Suburban Hospital; and is an advisor to Arcadia University’s Genetic Counseling Masters Program. She was an original member of the Childhood Cancer Advisory Committee of the American Cancer Society in Philadelphia (1986 – 2006) and served on the board of the PA Association of Nonprofit Organizations (2006 – 2009). Peggy has been invited to the Consortium for Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs by the Pennsylvania Department of Health. She also served on the Patient and Family Issues Subcommittee as a member of the Pediatric Palliative & Hospice Care Task Force for the Pennsylvania Department of Welfare.