Lee, the campaign's honorary chairwoman, gave the keynote speech at a fund-raising dinner Wednesday.

Rex Lee died in 1995 after a long bout with cancer. Janet Lee recalled having to live in a hotel in Maryland for months while her husband received medical care there.

"A Family Guest House - you can't even imagine what a dream that would have been. The key to my happiness then was a place to stay," Lee said.

Various medical professionals and former residents of the Oncology House attended the dinner that honored donors who have made significant contributions to the guest house during the private phase of the campaign.

To date, the Central Utah Health Care Foundation has raised $1.2 million of the $1.6 million needed to build and operate the house. The funds have been raised principally from Intermountain Health Care employees, American Fork Hospital and Utah Valley Volunteer Auxiliaries, physicians associated with the three IHC hospitals in Utah County, and two private Utah County foundations.

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The mission of the guest house is not to help hospitals, but rather to help patients and their families, said Henry E. Heilesen, member of the Family Guest House Campaign Advisory Committee.

Residents of the new house will include families of cancer, rehabilitation, cardiac and intensive-care patients as well as parents from outlying areas who have children in the newborn intensive-care nursery.

"If someone needs a place to stay and can't pay even anything at all, they will be accommodated. Moreover, the facility will be available to patients and family members regardless of which hospital in Utah County they are using," said Paul H. Schneiter, executive director of the Central Utah Health Care Foundation.

The house will maintain 12 apartment-type units for families. The families will share a kitchen, washer, dryer and commons area.

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