Kim Hill was diagnosed with leukemia at age 3 and was not expected to survive into adulthood. Three years later in 1972, her father Fred, who was playing football for the Philadelphia Eagles, had a team fund-raising fashion show for the Leukemia Society of America in her honor and raised over $10,000. After this start, Fred, with neighbor Stan Lane, started Eagles Fly for Leukemia, backed by the Eagles’ owner, Leonard Tose. In 1974, this led to starting the Ronald MacDonald House which became model
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View More for an international network of temporary housing for families of sick children. Kim was a spokeswoman for them for years, appearing at openings and riding on a float celebrating the charity’s 10th anniversary in the 1984 Rose Parade. She managed a McDonald’s restaurant until age 24 when she was diagnosed with brain tumors thought to have been caused by her childhood radiation treatments. Ronald McDonald House Charities now operates over 350 houses in 40+ countries.