Back to NewsroomKomen San Diego Bridges Funding Gap
January 28, 2013
Last week, 15 San Diego women were on a waiting list because the money ran out in a special program funded by Susan G. Komen for the Cure, San Diego through the Council of Community Clinics. Through the quick action of the San Diego charities’ board of directors, $26,000 was quickly dispersed to the clinics to get those women the help they needed. Komen San Diego received a call from Nicole Howard, director of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Diagnostic Fund at the Council. She said they had $59 left in the fund that had started at $352,000 in April of last year. Unless they received emergency funding, Howard told Komen that women in need of free breast cancer diagnostic treatments would be put on a waiting list until this April.
“There should never be a waiting list to find out if you are facing a breast cancer diagnosis or not,” said Laura Farmer Sherman, Executive Director of Susan G. Komen for the Cure in San Diego. “Our mission is to speed women through the diagnosis process and to get her into treatment as fast as possible. We do not believe in waiting lists. And thanks to the generosity of San Diegans who have raised funds in the Race for the Cure, there won’t be one.”
The $26,000 will provide uninsured women of all ages with free diagnostic mammograms, biopsies, ultrasounds and MRI’s. These monies would be specifically for meeting the demand for patient diagnostic costs with no additional overhead expenses or indirect costs. This will increase their total budget allocation for 2012-2013 from $352,000 to $378,000 with $336,500 directly being allocated to the diagnostic line item.
“We could not be more grateful to Komen for continuously supporting our programs that help so many women get the help they need,” said Gary Rotto, Director of Health Policy, Council of Community Clinics and Komen San Diego Grantee. “In San Diego, Komen is the only organization providing grants to make sure uninsured women get access to diagnostics.”
Komen San Diego has granted more than $11 million over the past 16 years to the San Diego community.