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Audrey Evans (1925–2022), Ronald McDonald House co-founder

by Linnea Crowther

Audrey Evans was a pediatric oncologist who co-founded the first Ronald McDonald House for families with children in the hospital.

Pioneer in children’s cancer treatment

A native of England, Evans knew from an early age that she wanted to be a doctor. The only woman in her medical school when she began her higher education, she studied in both England and the U.S. and made her career at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. There, she specialized in neuroblastoma, working to make the disease easier to diagnose and much more survivable than it had been. Evans established a system of stages, now common in talking about cancer, to describe the progression of neuroblastoma tumors. She also provided the first proof that chemotherapy could fight solid tumors.

In addition to her scientific work on childhood cancers, Evans also worked to bring comfort to children fighting cancer and their families. She allowed children to bring a small pet with them to their treatments, and she kept a large cage of finches at the hospital to amuse her patients. In 1971, frustrated by the lack of accommodations for parents of children hospitalized far from home, she began imagining a facility where those parents could stay for long periods while their children were being treated. Evans worked with members of the Philadelphia Eagles, and McDonald’s, to create the first Ronald McDonald House. Today, there are hundreds of these facilities around the world. A movie about Evans’ life, “Audrey’s Children,” is currently in production.

Notable quote

“What can you do to make things a little better for children who are stuck in hospital with a bad disease? Fortunately, nobody liked oncology. The people who run the place would rather not go to the oncology floor. So I got away with things I could do in oncology, which I’m sure you couldn’t do on a healthy ward. One child said, ‘Can I bring my parakeet in a cage?’ Oh, sure, you can have your parakeet.” —from a 2018 interview for Ronald McDonald House Charities

Tributes to Audrey Evans

Full obituary: The Washington Post

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