A humane society project · Beaufort, South Carolina
Kater2Cancer delivers hot meals, drives patients to treatment, and pays the bills that treatment leaves behind — for families across Beaufort County. The work is run by the great-grandchildren of Lucille Culbertson, who faced cancer here and was kept going by neighbors who simply showed up with food.
First-year targets
Why this exists
Lucille Davis Culbertson was born in Beaufort in 1925 and grew up in Old Point, the seventh of eleven children. Her father managed a farm on the water across town; her mother took in washing, helped in the fields, and still served three hot meals a day to a full table. "We had such fun on that farm," Lucille remembered. "And we had everything we needed."
She walked three miles to school and three miles back. Black children sat in the balcony at the Breeze Theater and drank from separate water fountains. Five of her brothers and sisters served in the Second World War. She married after high school, trained as a nurse and midwife, delivered babies before Beaufort Memorial Hospital opened in 1944, and then spent more than fifty years caring for elderly and homebound patients — many of them in the same neighborhood she was born in.
First African Baptist Church, built in 1865 by freed slaves, raised her. The minister at the time was her godfather, and it was he who named her Lucille, which means light. She washed its windows, sang the solo when nobody else came to choir, and her family now fills two of its pews. She marched with Martin Luther King, Jr. through Beaufort, from the old K-Mart shopping center down to Grace AME Church; her brother Hyland knew Dr. King well. Asked to explain any of it, she would say very little: "I just pray to God and do the Lord's will."
She buried her parents, all ten of her siblings, her husband, and two of her three children, and was the last surviving member of the family she was born into. What carried her through her own illness was not only medicine. It was the people who appeared at her door with a covered dish, a ride to an appointment, a hand that did the dishes without being asked — the same thing she had done for other households her whole life.
Her great-grandchildren started Kater2Cancer so that kindness reaches the next household on the same streets, as organized, dependable support with a name attached to it and a phone number that gets answered. The rule of this organization came directly from her kitchen: bring something, stay a while, and do not ask the family to prove how badly they need it.
"She was soft, she was comforting, and she could inspire you right into your future."— The Culbertson family
Her life, in order
The Depression, the war, Jim Crow, the movement, and the slow remaking of Old Point — Lucille lived all of it in the town she was born in, and spent most of it looking after somebody else.
1925
Lucille Davis came into the world in Beaufort in 1925, the seventh of eleven children raised by a mother who took in washing and never let the table go empty.
The farm
Her father moved the family across town to manage a farm on the water. Fresh milk, vegetables, good fishing — she remembered it as idyllic, and never learned the hardship of it.
Girlhood
She walked three miles to school and three miles home. Black children sat in the balcony at the Breeze Theater and drank from separate fountains — remembered, but never carried as bitterness.
The war
Five of her brothers and sisters served in the military during the Second World War.
1944
Married after high school, she trained as a nurse and midwife and delivered babies before Beaufort Memorial Hospital opened in 1944.
50 years
Most of her working life was spent caring for elderly and homebound patients — many of them back in Old Point, the neighborhood she was born in.
The church
The church built by freed slaves in 1865 raised her. Its minister was her godfather, and he named her Lucille — light. She washed its windows, sang the solos nobody else would sing, and her family now fills two pews.
The march
She marched with Martin Luther King, Jr. in Beaufort, from the old K-Mart shopping center down to Grace AME Church. Her brother Hyland was in the movement and knew Dr. King well.
GG
She met Erich Wilms in the pew at First African Baptist. For ten years he has phoned her every single day, wherever in the world he happens to be, and they talk for an hour at a time.
Loss
She buried her parents, all ten of her siblings, her husband, and two of her three children — and kept her spirits high.
Two rules
The whole philosophy, in one sentence from her father: always go to church, and always vote.
"My daddy taught me two things: always go to church. And always vote."— Lucille
Life details and quotations on this page are drawn from "A Beautiful Friendship," the profile of Lucille written by Margaret Evans and posted May 25, 2021, together with the family's own recollections. Photographs are reproduced from that article.
What we actually do
Nothing here is awareness, and nothing here is a poster. Each program below ends with food on a table, a patient in a chair on time, or a bill paid on someone's behalf.
01 / Meals
Hot, home-style food brought to the door on the days treatment makes cooking impossible — and a full grocery run for the weeks after.
02 / Transport
Missed appointments cost progress. We make sure the drive to infusion, radiation, and oncology never becomes the reason care stops.
03 / Direct Aid
The treatment is rarely the only cost. We pay the expenses that pile up beside it and force patients to choose between medicine and the house.
04 / Support
A standing weekly room — open to patients and to the people caring for them — where the paperwork, the fear, and the silence all get some help.
05 / Community
The monthly supper that funds the work — church kitchens, local restaurants, and neighbors cooking one long table together.
06 / Remembrance
Cancer does not end with a diagnosis or with a death. We stay with the household before, through, and long after.
Find your support
Describe your situation in your own words — meals, rides, bills, someone to talk to. This guide suggests programs and who in the family to contact. It does not give medical advice; for questions about care, talk with your doctor. In an emergency call 911.
How a request moves
01
A phone call, a form, a nurse referral, or a neighbor who simply tells us. No application fee, no income paperwork required to start.
02
We listen, confirm the diagnosis and treatment schedule, and learn what the household actually needs this month.
03
Meals go on a route, a driver gets assigned, and bills are paid direct to the vendor — usually within 72 hours.
04
Check-ins continue through treatment and after it. Support does not stop the day the last scan comes back clean.
Who we serve
We work inside Beaufort, Jasper, and Hampton counties — the coast and the sea islands — where the nearest infusion center can be an hour's drive and a missed appointment is often a transportation problem wearing a medical mask.
There is no income test to receive a meal. There is no application fee. A nurse, a pastor, a neighbor, or the patient themselves can start a request.
Give
Money here converts quickly into something someone can hold. Pick a level below and we will send you the name of the household it reached, with their permission.