Lung Health News, Spring/Summer 2006
Frances and Charles McClung met in the 1930s at a rehabilitation camp for people with tuberculosis (TB). Both had lost parents to the dreaded disease. That’s why they want to give back to the American Lung Association, an early pioneer in the prevention and treatment of TB, by including the association in their estate plans.
“This organization kept putting money into finding something that would keep us from lying there for years and years,” Frances says. “Otherwise, we had no future.”
The American Lung Association was founded in 1904 to fight TB and invested millions of dollars into research to help find more effective treatments and eventually a cure. TB was one of the most feared diseases in the world, and even the McClungs have been hesitant to talk about it due to the stigma that was once attached to the disease.
At 91, the McClungs, who live in San Diego County, are grateful to be alive. Even after all these years, they still remember the years of treatment they endured to survive TB.
The couple married in 1939 and raised three boys. During World War II, Charles built his insurance business. With Frances as office manager, Charles started his own insurance brokerage in 1948 and was a founding director of Mercury Insurance in 1964.
Children, business success, and a love for travel and adventure all made up for the difficult start the McClungs had in the TB sanitorium. But neither forgot the experience and they both have a powerful urge to give back to the community that supported them, including the American Lung Association.
