A BSN Alum Who’s Given Hundreds of Cancer Patients a Day to Remember
Rachel Antin, right, sits with One Day to Remember recipient Julie Miller, second from right, and her family at a Pittsburgh Pirates game. (Adam Michaels Photography)
When Rachel Wein Antin ’13 was an oncology nurse at UPMC Hillman Cancer Center, she met a patient who just wanted to do something with her seven-year-old daughter that would let them forget about cancer.
It was something Antin had heard before. “When I was working in oncology, I saw a lot of [patients] who were struggling to find any quality time with their loved ones at home,” she said
This time, Antin decided to do something. She planned a day out that this patient and her daughter could enjoy together. They got their hair and makeup done, went to a photoshoot in a park, and got behind the counter of a pizza shop so they could put on aprons and make their own pies together.
It was a day mother and daughter both cherished, and the beginning of Antin’s post-nursing career as the executive director of One Day to Remember, the nonprofit she founded to give cancer patients and their families memorable experiences.
“It all came together at Chatham”
Before she started at the Hillman Cancer Center, Antin was working as a nurse at UPMC Shadyside, but she didn’t have her bachelors degree in nursing. She decided to go to Chatham University for the bachelors in nursing program.
“There were a lot of other programs that would’ve helped me get my degree, but I just felt like Chatham was a great place that just wants what’s best for their students,” she said.
She enjoyed the faculty, the students with whom she studied, and the beautiful, rolling hills of Shadyside Campus. Additionally, she was able to continue working while studying for her degree, which took her less than two years to complete.
“It really boosted my confidence,” Antin said. “It was something I wasn’t able to accomplish before Chatham, and I felt like I could do anything.”
“I wanted to feel successful and work as a nurse, and help people and advocate for people,” she said. “And it all came together at Chatham.”
Not long after graduation, she transitioned to oncology nursing, working with chemotherapy patients and managing a clinic with a physician. That’s how she got the idea for One Day to Remember.
“It was just because I saw this need while I was working as a nurse,” she said.
Hundreds of days to remember
Antin poses for a photo at a celebration of One Day to Remember’s 500th outing. (Jade Hambrick/Adam Michaels Photography)
Founded in 2016, One Day to Remember has grown from that first outing at the park to over 500 “days to remember.” Recipients have been from Alaska, New Jersey, and nearly every state in between. Antin says their goal is to do 300 more outings before the end of 2025.
In Pittsburgh, those days have included everything from going to an all-inclusive Pirates game to a nice dinner at a restaurant. The organization plans everything, and it is all cost free for the families.
One of the program recipients was Kate Crawford, who now works for One Day to Remember doing social media outreach and advising recipient families.
When she reached out to the organization in 2021 and told them she and her family enjoyed animals and the outdoors, they wound up taking a limousine to the Pittsburgh Zoo & Aquarium, where Crawford and her family went behind the scenes for a look at an animal medical center and more. They even got to pet a tiny hippo.
“It’s so unique, because that’s not something you think of for adults,” Crawford said. “Usually, you think of a ‘dream day’ for pediatric patients. But to be able to have a day to make memories, as a cancer patient—especially a late-stage cancer patient—with your kids, is priceless.”
“I feel like every parent that has cancer should be able to have this one day, where they don’t have to worry about anything except being together with their family.”
The organization also does all of their own fundraising. On Oct. 16, they’re hosting their annual “One Bite One Day” fundraiser, where over two dozen chefs and bartenders serve unique food and cocktails, past recipients give speeches about their experiences, and a silent auction is held.
And though One Day to Remember has gone national, Antin has stayed local—in fact, she’s not far from Chatham’s Shadyside Campus.
“I take my kids back and show them where I went to school,” she said. “I walk up Woodland Road quite often. I really enjoy that I get to live close and see the beauty of the campus.”
Learn more about Chatham’s nursing programs, part of Chatham’s College of Health Sciences, at chatham.edu.