RALEIGH - The limo pulled up at the motel where Matt Cooper and his family were staying. There were roses for his mother, a bag of toys for his little sister and a night for everyone that would make them forget, even if just for a little while, why they were there.

Cooper is 15 now, still undergoing treatment at Duke Children's Hospital for the brain tumor that stole his vision. And when Ron Francis is inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame on Monday, Cooper will be one of many Duke patients cheering.

"At the time, not knowing who he was, you didn't say, 'This guy's amazing.' You just said, 'I'm meeting a hockey player,' " Cooper says. "I had no idea he was going into the Hall of Fame one of these days. Now, it's like, 'Wow, how did I get lucky enough to meet him?' "

Seven years ago, Cooper got the benefit of a charitable endeavor Francis started when he signed with the Carolina Hurricanes in the summer of 1998.

On the nights of Hurricanes games, a limo would pick up a Duke patient and his family. The whole party -- aunts, uncles, even the limo driver, in Cooper's case -- would eat dinner in the arena restaurant and watch the game from Francis' luxury suite. After the game, the group would meet with Francis outside the locker room door.

The Ron Francis Night Out program was the most famous manifestation of Francis' charity work in the six years he played for the Hurricanes. He retired after the 2003-04 season.

Francis, now the team's assistant general manager, led the Hurricanes to the Stanley Cup finals in 2002, and his No. 10 is the only number the team has retired. In the NHL record book, he is among the elite. He is in the top four in points, assists (second only to the great Wayne Gretzky) and games played, and one of only two players to record 22 consecutive 50-point seasons.

That legacy of excellence garnered Francis many awards and trophies: the Selke Trophy as the game's best defensive forward, the Lady Byng trophy honoring sportsmanship and gentlemanly play; and two Stanley Cups with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1991 and 1992.

But one lesser-known trophy stays with Francis as much as any. In 2002, he won the King Clancy trophy, which honors leadership and humanitarian contributions.

"The one that's really special to me is the Clancy, because it's about giving back to the communities you live in," Francis says. "For me, that was something I always thought was extremely important.

"We're pretty fortunate to do what we do, and I was pretty fortunate to live in some pretty good cities during my career. To be able to give something back to those communities and get recognized for it was something I'm proud of."

Key role in fundraiser

Francis also won the NHL Foundation Player Award that season and helped publicize a December 2001 charity hockey game between the Raleigh Police Department and the U.S. Secret Service that raised more than $20,000 for the family of a Secret Service agent killed on Sept. 11.

"He wanted to meet with our players, come into the room and talk to the guys and thank us for what we do," says Secret Service agent Chip Sheehan. "He had a nice little talk with us and wanted to meet with the spouses. ... He was very generous to the family."

He has also been involved with Special Olympics in Hartford, Conn., and his hometown of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. The Special Olympics is a cause as close as a brother. Francis, the son of a mill worker, grew up balancing hockey with caring for his younger brother Rick, who suffered from seizures and a learning disability.

Rick went on to win multiple gold medals in cross-country skiing at the Special Olympics World Winter Games, which speaks to the Francis bloodline. But Francis never forgot what it was like for his family to travel across Canada seeking help for him.

"A lot of times when there's an illness to a child like that, obviously it turns the family's lifestyle upside down," Francis says. "Parents with jobs and siblings with schoolwork, it's very tough and taxing on the family. To be able to reward the family because of the patient was an idea I really liked."

'Just the real deal'

He started the night-out program when he was with the Penguins. When he came to North Carolina, he quickly built a relationship with Duke.

Ken Baroff, executive director of planning and development at Duke Children's Hospital, has a long relationship with Francis.

"There's a big difference between certain kinds of people who do that because that's what the organization is doing and then there's a whole different kind of person, like Ron," Baroff says. "His reputation preceded him, but he's just the real deal."

When he retired, Francis let go of his suite, and the night-out program came to an end. (Since becoming assistant general manager in October, he has considered restarting that program.)

Some Hurricanes have followed in Francis' footsteps from time to time, while others have their own charitable efforts. Cam Ward raises money for Special Olympics. Erik Cole and Eric Staal donate a suite to the team's charitable foundation. But the magnitude of Francis' contributions endures.

The story of Emma

In 2003, 8-year-old Emma Bozarth arrived at Duke from Macomb, Ill., suffering from common variable immunodeficiency -- "in layman's terms, bubble-boy syndrome," her mother, Jill Jones, says -- and requiring a stem-cell transplant.

Her stepfather, who sells the industrial sewing machines the Hurricanes use, reached out to the team for help. Francis answered. He helped get the family into Durham's Ronald McDonald House and gave them tickets to games.

"We were all scared out of our shorts," Jill Jones says. "He made an awful experience into a pretty good one, if you can say that."

Today, Emma is back in Macomb, still requiring weekly doses of the experimental medicine Duke used to avoid a transplant but otherwise happy and healthy.

When she wrote a book about her experience, Francis wrote the foreword. (Her second book, "The ABCs of Kids Like Me," is available at www.immunedisease.com.)

"It's kind of cool that there are people like Ron Francis," Jones says. "I didn't know the man from Adam, but if you said, 'That girl Emma is so grateful,' he'd remember her. He definitely takes time to give back to people."