PCHS Foundation awarded grant funds for breast health programs
Perkins County Health Services Foundation has received a $17,765 community grant from Susan G. Komen® Great Plains for their Pay It Forward program.
The program will provide families with financial support, empowerment and assistance in making sure the needs of breast health and breast health education are met.
PCHSF wants to make sure that the roadblocks to care are destroyed as much as possible. The program will involve assistance with cost of services, travel, home expenses, treatment and other aspects the patient and their family find to be a barrier in the continuum of care.
The program is expected to impact patients in eight counties: Perkins, Chase, Lincoln, Garden, Grant, Hayes, Keith and Arthur.
PCHSF Administrator Adair Reese said she was touched early in life by a dear friend Abbie (Powell) Vialpando who dealt with cancer throughout her life, one of those being breast cancer.
“Unfortunately she lost her battle in 2017, but with the grant received from Susan G Komen Great Plains we can assist patients with breast health and breast health education while also reducing the barriers they find during the continuum of care. Developing this program was a way to also continue to honor Abbie.
“She was with me every step of the way and the reason the Pay It Forward Program was developed,” said Reese.
She explained some of the things the program will cover, such as assisting patients with the payment of a necessary second mammogram, ultrasounds, bills associated with treatment, “pretty much all aspects of breast cancer.”
Being eligible to receive funds has nothing to do with income level.
“If this is going to make it difficult for your family to function, then we want to help reduce the chances of you not completing care,” said Reese.
Komen® Great Plains recently announced the availability of 10 community programs in Nebraska and South Dakota that will provide medically underserved men and women with various services designed to detect breast cancer early and help ensure quality care for those diagnosed with breast cancer.
Programs will run through March 2019. A list is available at www.komengreatplains.org.
About Susan G. Komen® and Komen Great Plains
Susan G. Komen is the world’s largest breast cancer organization, funding more breast cancer research than any other nonprofit outside of the federal government while providing real-time help to those facing the disease.
Komen has set a Bold Goal to reduce the current number of breast cancer deaths by 50 percent in the U.S. by 2026. Komen was founded in 1982 by Nancy G. Brinker, who promised her sister, Susan G. Komen, that she would end the disease that claimed Suzy’s life.
Komen Great Plains is working to better the lives of those facing breast cancer in the local community. Through events like Race for the Cure®, Komen Great Plains has invested more than $8 million in community breast health programs in Nebraska and the Dakotas and has helped contribute to the more than $956 million invested globally in research.
For more information, call 402-502-2979 or visit www.komengreatplains.org.