Widowed DeKalb man honors late wife with recent donation to cancer center: ‘It feels good to give back’

DeKALB – It’s been three years since Roger Finnan was widowed after his wife died from cancer only one month short of her 50th birthday.

In the time since, Finnan, of DeKalb, has turned his grief into efforts to keep Shannon’s spirit alive, finding ways to honor and memorialize her throughout town. Recently, Finnan raised and donated $8,000 to Northwestern Medicine’s Kishwaukee Hospital Cancer Center, where Shannon received treatment for melanoma skin cancer before she died.

He said he didn’t initially plan on donating to the Kishwaukee Cancer Center in DeKalb. He started by wanting to memorialize where Shannon was often the happiest: River Heights Golf Course, 1020 Sharon Drive in DeKalb.

Shannon was an avid golfer and well known within the DeKalb Elks Lodge No. 765 community. Although Finnan’s memorial plans began with a bench, they soon evolved to a larger way to honor his wife. He hosted a golf outing earlier this year in her name, with more than 100 people showing up to celebrate Shannon’s life.

“Last year, I donated a bench in her honor on the first hole of River Heights, and they finally got it installed this year. And so we had a golf outing for her, and 116 golfers showed up and 180 for dinner,” Finnan, 65, said.

Jerry Evans, exalted ruler of the DeKalb Elks for 2023, said it was natural for the local patriotic organization to give back to the Finnans by helping to facilitate the charitable golf outing.

“This is something that the Elks do, we care. We are for veterans and children and [fighting] cancer and for anything. We’re here to give, give back to the community,” Evans said.

Robin Franklin, secretary of Elks Lodge No. 765, said the charity golf outing likely will become an annual event, because it’s in memory of someone everyone in the organization knew and appreciated.

“And I just want to say when Roger approached the Elks, everyone was totally on board, because Shannon spent a lot of time down here and we got to know her really well,” Franklin said.

After paying for the expenses of the event, Finnan found he’d raised about $8,000. He knew he wanted to donate the money in honor of his wife to a local entity. He decided on the cancer center.

“My intention was to donate it locally. Not to sound mean or anything, but I’d hate to donate toward an organization where 80% of the money goes to suits,” Finnan said.

On July 12 at the DeKalb Elks Lodge, Michelle Scheri, a nurse manager in the fusion department at Kishwaukee Hospital Cancer Center, accepted Finnan’s donation on behalf of the center.

Finnan said he’s been working with a representative from the Kishwaukee Hospital Cancer Center Foundation to establish how the money will be spent.

Scheri said the funds likely will be given to different patients via gift cards, allowing the patients to use the funds where they need them the most.

“Oh, I think this’ll be a really huge benefit. And we made sure all of the nursing staff is aware, too, so they can help identify patients that might have a greater need than others,” Scheri said. “I don’t think you know how expensive the cancer journey is until you’ve experienced it. There’s a lot of copays, there’s a lot of … deductibles and those types of things that patients are burdened with. So I think this will be a really big benefit.”

Shannon received treatment for nine months, and the total cost of her treatment was near $1.4 million, Finnan said.

Three years on, Roger said he doesn’t have any debt associated with his wife’s treatment. After living through what he called a nightmare watching her suffer from cancer, however, he’s taken action to support others in a similar situation.

“I always think about her, but just giving back to – I mean, being in the cancer center for nine months, to see all the people that are in there – it feels good to give back,” Finnan said.