Blue Bell couple continues daughter's work in nonprofit to help families of seriously ill

The moment when Phil and Nancy Siegel realized their daughter had found a new calling came in a hospital room.

Jillian A. Siegel, 20, was battling acute myeloid leukemia at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, but the Pennsylvania State University sophomore was working the phones and writing letters to help organize Thon, the giant annual charity dance marathon at her school.

"We thought, 'We've got to stop this, she's got to rest,' " said Nancy Siegel, of Blue Bell. "But then we thought, this is the passion that you want your child to have."

Several months later, Jillian Siegel died. Two weeks later, her friends at Penn State paid tribute to her with a video presentation at Thon.

Phil and Nancy Siegel have decided to continue their daughter's work. They founded a nonprofit that will benefit struggling families of seriously ill young people, like the ones they met when Jillian was in treatment.

The organization, Jill Just Wants 2 Help, aims to provide financial help and a place to stay for families of young adults being treated for the blood cancers leukemia and myeloma at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.

The organization, working with Penn Medicine, expects to begin providing grants at the end of next year and ultimately wants to build a Jill's House. The residence would provide housing for families close to their hospitalized loved ones.

"We saw families that couldn't visit their children because parents had to work, or they had other children to take care of," said Phil Siegel, 65, an orthodontist. "They had to make choices between paying for education or transportation to the hospital or paying their rent."

Organizations such as Jill Just Wants 2 Help are often started by people affected by the loss of a loved one, said Jennifer Ross, a spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Association of Nonprofit Organizations.

But motivation is not enough, Ross said. A sound business plan and funding sources are imperative.

The Siegels eagerly plunged into the complicated legal and administrative undertaking. They partnered with a major hospital and formed a board of directors in an endeavor that often evoked the sadness tied to Jillian's death.

So far, the charity has raised about $40,000 from donations. It will have a fund-raiser Saturday night at the Green Valley Country Club in Lafayette Hill. The sold-out dinner dance is being hosted by From the Heart, a group of 19 mothers, most from Montgomery County, who raise money for charity.