Keanu Reeves is known in Hollywood for being an overall compassionate guy; from taking pay-cuts to give other actors and movie animators a pay raise to consistently buying lunch for entire groups of set-workers. But one thing people don’t know is that this kind gentleman has also been secretly donating millions of dollars to help fund cancer research and children’s hospitals.
For nearly 20 years, the lovable celebrity has been using his success to make a difference in the lives of the less fortunate. He runs a private charitable foundation that seeks to help suffering children.
“I have a private foundation that’s been running for five or six years, and it helps aid a couple of children’s hospitals and cancer research,” Keanu said in a small journal article written back in 2009, but no one knew the extent to which he had been privately helping.
“I don’t like to attach my name to it, I just let the foundation do what it does.”
Keanu has a deep personal reason as well for helping those struggling with cancer, as his sister Kim had been diagnosed with Leukemia in the past, and after being treated it wonderfully went into remission.
He’s been known to sit down and take calls from the public during charity telethons in order to help raise funds for the people and research they are helping.
“Public efforts found him manning the phones at a Stand Up to Cancer telethon in 2008,” the List wrote. “Stars like Reeves generously gave their time and used their star power to encourage fans to become callers, donors and participants in the efforts to heal cancer.”
Keanu also donates to many other charities, such as SCORE (Spinal Cord Opportunities for Rehabilitation Endowment), a charity which supports hockey players with spinal injuries.
One set-worker who worked with Keanu had the following to say about him;
“Back in the late 90s and fresh out of college I got my first job as an assistant prop designer on the set of Chain Reaction (Keanu was a supporting actor with Morgan Freeman). EVERY DAY for the last few weeks of filming, Keanu treated the stage hands and “grunt workers” (including myself) by taking us out for free breakfast and lunch. He was genuinely a very nice guy to work with. Since then, I’ve worked on about 30 different sets and have never met an actor as generous and friendly as him.”
Another set-worker told of Keanu’s amazing kindness and generosity when one of his co-workers was having family trouble:
“A family friend builds movie sets, doesn’t design, is one of the poor dudes that just builds. Anyways he worked on the set for the Matrix and Keanu heard about family trouble he was having and gave him a $20,000 Christmas bonus to help him out. He also was one of the only people on the set that genuinely wanted to know peoples names, would say hello and mean it, and would talk to people as they were his peers and not below him just because they were practically making nothing to build a set.”
When a woman was stranded on the side of the road, some unexpected help arrived:
“A friend of mine told me that she was once stranded on the side of a highway outside LA when her jalopy broke down. She had no cell phone (that was before most people had cell phones) and no way to call for help. Then a nice black porsche pulls over and as you can guess, it was Keanu. He tried to help her jump start the car and when it didn’t work, he called AAA for her. When they towed her car, he offered her to drive her home, which she accepted. He drove about 50 miles out of his destination just to drive her home. She told me she hoped he would hit on her but he didn’t, he was just a gentleman, dropped her at her house, gave her his phone number and told her to call him if she needed further help.”
It’s also well-known that he gave millions of his own dollars to the digital animators of the Matrix, to make sure that each one of them became millionaires for working on the epic movie.
One passerby noticed Keanu randomly sit down and have a talk with a homeless man, while sharing some food and drink with him.
A subway rider once saw the compassionate Keanu give up his seat to another rider on the train.
Keanu Reeves has used his success to consistently be kind and compassionate, and it’s no surprise that he has secretly been donating millions of dollars to help struggling children with cancer.
If you’re also wanting to make a difference in the lives of children with cancer, consider visiting St. Jude Children’s Hospital and making a donation.
You are Loved.
See Also: He Secretly Donated Millions To Schools, Homeless Shelters And These Charities
