The Raleigh-based State Employees' Credit Union Foundation has pledged $2 million to University of North Carolina Hospitals in Chapel Hill to support construction of the $5.5 million Family House, a home-away-from-home for relatives of seriously ill patients at the hospitals, the Raleigh News & Observer reports.

For years, Ronald McDonald House, located less than two miles from UNC Hospitals on land adjacent to the proposed Family House site, has provided thirty rooms and board for the parents and caregivers of critically ill children at little or no cost, while UNC Hospitals has offered basic, on-campus lodging for forty people for $12 per person per night — a program that is slated to be discontinued.

Family House will be similar to Ronald McDonald House and will provide affordable family accommodations for transplant, cancer, burn, and other critical-care patients and their families. The property will have forty bedrooms, each with a private bath, a fully equipped kitchen, and large dining and living rooms, as well as a small library, recreational facilities, walking trails, gardens, and a meadow. Shuttle service to and from UNC Hospitals also will be available.

According to Family House planners, the average stay at UNC Hospitals for seriously ill patients is 6.5 days; the average distance traveled by patients is 75 miles; and the average cost of a hotel room in Chapel Hill is $75 a night. "It's hard to describe the enormousness of this gift," said Mike Maxwell, president of the project's board of directors, who added that construction on the building could begin in September 2006.