HOUSTON -- Dealing with cancer or any serious illness can be one of life's biggest challenges. It's even harder for patients who cannot afford the transportation to receive treatment. A Houston woman refuses to let that happen. She devised a way for patients to reach their medical facility free of charge.

Kathy Broussard is helping to save lives. It's one of the many reasons she is this month's Jefferson Award winner.

Broussard's good work is known mostly by word of mouth, but that's about to change.

Houston's Ground Angels are members of a transporation service started in the late 1990s by Broussard.

Broussard realized that she could serve hospital patients outside the Houston area by taking the stress out of transportation costs. The cab fare can be hundreds of dollars round-trip from Bush Intercontinental Airport to the Texas Medical Center. Air fare can cost hundreds more.

For Broussard's dream to take flight, she needed angel's wings. Her ad in a newspaper delivered.

"I got numerous calls. I was on the phone for days calling everybody back saying they wanted to volunteer. But I had to find out what airport they were closest to. You want to keep the pilots in their airport," she said.

The volunteer pilot flies the patient into the Houston area and drivers take it from there -- taking the patient to their hospital or hotel.

The volunteers provide everything at their own cost.

Pilots offer their own airplanes while drivers provide cars and fuel. It's a true example of paying it forward.

"Being a pilot, you always want a to fly. Now I have a reason to fly. You form a relationship with these people, you know, it's like family. It's more than a friendship. It's almost like family," said Bo Hunter, a Houston Ground Angels pilot.

Deloris Walker is a breast cancer patient at MD Anderson. She knows how costly and difficult it is to travel from Lake Charles, La.

The angels help her make her appointments.

"I've only missed one trip because of the bad weather. Otherwise, they were right there for me -- always there for me," Walker said.

Walker said her cancer treatments have been going well and she is looking forward to cutting back on her flight schedule.

For Broussard, it's a success story.

"If you don't take the stress away, the medicine won't work. The doctors can do everything they do, but if the stress is there, how does it work? They'll stay home and die. That's exactly the bottom line. They'll stay home and die. And I say that's unacceptable. It's just not," Broussard said.

There are approximately 200 ground angels in the Houston area. Last year, about 1,200 flights landed in Houston from as far away as Georgia.

"You're a companion, a friend. You pray with them, cry on your shoulder. It's more than taking people to the airport. It's being their friend and being there for them," said Taiwo Fasoranti, a ground angel.

"This is a blessing, one of the best blessings I've ever had in my whole life," Walker said.

The Houston Ground ngels are always looking for volunteers. In the current economic climate, Broussard reminds volunteers that all expenses can be written off as a charitable contribution.

Corporate volunteers are also welcome.

For more information on the program and how to volunteer, visit www.houstongroundangels.org.