An American Cancer Society program is offering free or reduced cost hotel rooms for cancer patients and their caregivers.
The Patient Lodging Program works with hotels in the Portland-area to offer the rooms on a space-available basis. When patients schedule their treatments, they contact the American Cancer Society for a room reservation.
The program is designed to help lessen the financial burden of traveling to the Portland-area for treatment, according to the society.
In 2011, hotels in the Portland-metro area provided 925 free or reduced-cost rooms to 213 people during their cancer treatments. One participating hotel, Red Lion Hotel on the River at Jantzen Beach, donated 164 rooms to 64 patients last year alone.