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Avon Walk for Breast Cancer 2009 Grants
Avon Foundation Breast Care Fund (New York, NY) $6,000,000 Cancer Care (New York, NY) $1,125,000 Love/Avon Army of Women (Los Angeles, CA) $800,000
HOUSTON, TX: April 4 - 5, 2009 Baylor University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (Houston) received $309,985 to create a patient navigation program at Lyndon B. Johnson General Hospital and to support the Houston Breast Cancer Task Force, which was announced last year in response to data about disparities in breast cancer mortality released at the 2008 Avon Foundation Forum in Houston. Black women in Houston die of breast cancer at a rate 45 percent greater than white women. The Task Force has been studying this problem, and new Avon grant funds will assist them to publish and implement recommendations for system-wide changes to close the disparity gap. Baylor College of Medicine (Houston) received $299,000 to establish patient navigation services at the Ben Taub General Hospital through the Avon Foundation Safety Net program, as well as continue their research on how pregnancy alters the future risk of breast cancer, which may provide future direction for preventing breast cancer. Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center (El Paso) received $147,474 to expand their prevention study analyzing markers in blood and breast tissue that are associated with risk factors for breast cancer. The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (Galveston) received $125,000 to support patient navigation services and restore outreach and breast screening to the Galveston area, which was devastated by Hurricane Ike in September 2008. Accepting the award was Katherine Golden Beck, Regional Director, Maternal + Child Health Program. Alamo Breast Cancer Foundation (San Antonio) received $160,000 to bring patient advocates to the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, the largest breast cancer conference, and produce a “Meeting Highlights CD” that is distributed to thousands of others. This grant will ensure that the findings from this important breast cancer conference here in Texas are disseminated as widely as possible. A team of five walkers and three crew members from the Alamo Breast Cancer Foundation participated in this year’s Avon Walk for Breast Cancer Houston. Three local community-based organizations received grants through the nationwide Avon Foundation Breast Care Fund that supports outreach, breast health education and linking women into screening services and follow-up care in partnership with local medical providers:
WASHINGTON, DC: May 2 - 3, 2009 The National Breast Cancer Coalition Fund received $1,812,018 to continue Project LEAD, a vital program that trains breast cancer survivors to be patient advocates and serve as advisors to research and funding programs. Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore) received $850,000 support access to care programs at the Avon Breast Center at Johns Hopkins as well as cutting edge research. Capital Breast Care Center (Washington, D.C.) received $750,000 to support Avon’s signature patient care program in the District, run in partnership by Georgetown Medical Center and Medstar Health. The Capital Breast Care Center provides critical safety net services to medically underserved and uninsured women in the Washington DC metropolitan area, serving more than 2,400 per year. George Washington University (Washington, D.C.) received $300,000 to support research into a particular biomarker that is found in 80% of invasive ductal breast tumors and metastasis, with a focus on determining its use as a marker in risk assessment and predictor of disease progression. Virginia Tech Foundation (Virginia) received $300,000 to support a research project entitled Environmental Risk of Breast Cancer Development: Molecular Basis for Prevention. This study will investigate the mechanisms through which the circadian clock acts as a tumor suppressor in the biology of estrogen-dependent breast cancer. Food and Friends (Washington, D.C.) received $250,000 to support their Avon Pink Ribbon Delivery Program which provides specialized nutrition support and individualized nutrition counseling to women living with breast cancer and their families in metropolitan Washington, D.C. providing 460,000 meals to 1,600 women fighting breast cancer and their families since 2000.
Massachusetts General Hospital received $750,000 to continue Avon funded research studies and access to care programs at the Avon Venter at Mass General and the community clinics in Chelsea, Gieger Gibson and Mattapan. Boston Medical Center received $549,891 to continue support to the “Avon Breast Health Initiative at Boston Medical Center” which provides patient navigation services, community outreach, and access to care for medically underserved populations. University of Massachusetts Amherst received $453,282 to support three separate research projects, all looking at different ways etiologic factors may play a role in breast cancer. The Silent Spring Institute received $200,000 to support updating population breast cancer datea for all Massachusetts counties into the MassHEIS environmental information system and finding a research fellowship into potential environmental causes linked to breast cancer. Community Services received $100,000 to support their Avon Door-to-Door Delivery Program, serving thousands of meals to breast cancer client families and educate hundreds on proper nutrition during cancer treatment. The Dana-Farber Cancer Institute received $100,000 to support a third year of research focused on understanding how changes in healthy breast tissue alters risk of breast cancer.
The University of Chicago (Chicago) received $900,000 to support three leading scientists to support three separate research projects studying the potential causes of breast cancer, biomarkers the could signal early disease, and new targets for treatment and preventing recurrence or spread of breast cancer. Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center at Northwestern University & Northwestern Memorial Hospital (Chicago) received $750,000 to support access to breast care for the underserved at Northwestern Memorial Hospital and the Erie Family Health Center. Funds also support cutting-edge research on identifying markers for breast cancer prevention and treatment response, and studying mechanisms of breast cancer growth, survival and metastasis. Mercy Foundation (Chicago) received $260,000 to continue support of a patient navigation program and support the purchase of new digital mammography equipment. Hektoen Institute for Medical Research/ Stroger Hospital (Chicago) received $200,000 to support the High Risk and Prevention Clinic. This program provides underserved women access to access to high-risk screening and genetic counseling services. Metropolitan Chicago Breast Cancer Task Force (Chicago) received $184,000 for efforts to implement programs aimed at reducing Chicago’s black:white disparity in breast cancer. The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois (Chicago) received $150,000 to support a third year of research focused on understanding how age related changes in healthy breast tissue alter risk of breast cancer.
ROCKY MOUNTAINS, CO: June 27 - 28, 2009 La Clinica Tepayac (Denver); Pueblo Community Health Center (Pueblo), and The Women’s Resource Center (Fort Collins), community based organizations, each received $35,000 to provide outreach to the public, breast health education and link women into screening services and follow-up care in partnership with local medical providers. Project Angel Heart (Denver) received $75,000 to women facing breast cancer receive meals and good nutrition. Children’s Treehouse Foundation (Denver) received $125,000 to provide education and assistance to families with children when a parent is facing breast cancer. University of Colorado Cancer Health Sciences Center (Denver) received $800,000 to support patient access to care programs, the Comadre Program and Project Survivorship Outreach to Latinas (Project SOL). In addition, funds support cutting-edge research projects that collectively aim to understand how age at first full term pregnancy alters risk of breast cancer, the role of breast stem cells in cancer, improve response to hormonal therapy and develop markers that characterize steps in breast cancer metastasis.
SAN FRANCISCO, CA: July 11 - 12, 2009 YWCA of Contra Costa County and Sacramento (Sacramento) received $35,000 to educate the community about breast cancer and the importance of early detection through health fairs and grassroots efforts. St. Joseph’s Hospital (Stockton) received $60,000 to educate the community about breast cancer and the importance of early detection through health fairs and grassroots efforts. Cancer Resource Center of Mendocino County (Mendocino) received $125,000 to help uninsured, low income, and minority women receive high quality breast care. Women’s Cancer Resource Center (Oakland) received $125,000 to help uninsured, low income, and minority women receive high quality breast care. Zero Breast Cancer (San Rafael) received $150,000 to continue its efforts engaging the community in breast cancer research and with a special focus at understanding why so many women in Marin County and the bay area get breast cancer. Project Open Hand (Oakland) received $200,000 to provides meals, grocery services and education programs for breast cancer patients and other critically ill patients. Charlotte Maxwell Complementary Clinic (San Fran/Oakland) received $225,000 to support the delivery of complementary alternative medicine and holistic health for extremely low-income women in San Francisco and Oakland. Stanford University (Stanford) received $300,000 for a research project to characterize a novel protein in breast cancer cells that associated with poor survival. Characterizing this protein receptor will provide a new class of targets for markers of disease and to develop new treatments. Marin County Department of Health & Human Services (San Rafael) received $425,000 to support the development of a new, saliva based model for breast cancer risk assessment. This study aims to improve and enhance accuracy in breast cancer risk assessment. Avon Comprehensive Breast Center at San Francisco General Hospital (San Francisco) received $750,000 to help the hospital provide mobile mammography services, supports patient navigation, and provides genetic screening to uninsured women. Avon funds also purchase new, state-or-the-art equipment; support research studies and provide women access to the latest treatments and clinical trials.
LOS ANGELES, CA: Sept 12 -13, 2009 Project Angel Food (Los Angeles) received $100,000 to support a home-delivered meals and nutrition services program for breast cancer clients and their families in greater Los Angeles County, from Lancaster to Long Beach. Accepting the award was CEO, Margaret Steele. Northridge Hospital Foundation (Northridge) received $100,000 to support a patient navigator program to help underserved breast cancer patients secure the complete range of services and care they need at the Northridge Hospital System. Council of Community Clinics (San Diego) received $150,000 to support the breast cancer care coordinator network, which provides care coordination, screening mammograms and diagnostic services, referral to follow up, and breast health education and outreach to low-income women throughout San Diego. University of Southern California (Los Angeles) received $300,000 to support a study that will evaluate whether two common fertility drugs can mimic early pregnancy & alter the gene & protein expression profile of breast tissue in women who have had a full-term pregnancy or not. Beckman Research Institute of the City of Hope (Suarte) received $300,000 to launch the Love/Avon Army of Women-Hope Cohort study that will create a new, powerful study group for research into questions related to breast cancer incidence, cause and survival. Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation (Santa Monica) received $800,000 to support the Love/Avon Army of Women a program that both links women interested in participating in breast cancer prevention research directly with scientists, and challenges scientists to study breast cancer in humans, with the ultimate goal of prevention. The Army of Women launched on October 1, 2008 and has recruited over 302,000 women to date. UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center (Los Angeles) received $850,000 to support the Avon Cares For Life Program, which includes on-site patient navigation, survivorship programs, high-risk clinic and clinical trials infrastructure at the “Avon Breast Cancer Center" at UCLA-Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center (located in the center of Los Angeles at the main UCLA campus) and the Olive View Medical Center and its related community clinics, and support for breast imaging fellowships at the Iris Cancer Center for Breast Imaging and UCLA Santa Monica Women’s Imaging Centers.
NEW YORK, NY: Oct 10 - 11, 2009 The Avon Foundation Breast Care Fund received $6,000,000 to support more than 140 community-based organizations nationwide that provide breast cancer education, outreach and screening. In 2010 these organizations will together facilitate more than 120,000 mammograms and clinical breast exams, and educate more than 1.5 million people about breast cancer. Cancer Care received $1,125,000 for its AvonCares program that provides direct financial assistance to low-income breast cancer patients, reaching women in 85% of all U.S. counties and all 50 states. To date, more than 39,000 patients have been helped. The Avon Foundation Breast Cancer Center of Excellence in the Herbert Irving Cancer Center at New York Presbyterian-Columbia University Medical Center received $750,000 that will continue to fund care for thousands of underserved women in a state-of-the art mammography center and will also support breast cancer research and clinical trials there. This brings total Avon Foundation support for Columbia-Presbyterian to $20 million dollars since 2000. God’s Love We Deliver received $200,000 to continue the program to provide nutrition education and meals to breast cancer patients and their families throughout the New York area. God’s Love We Deliver is part of a network of nutrition programs funded by the Avon Foundation across the country. Niagara University received $150,000 to support an exciting research project attempting to develop a new test that will use urine samples to screen for breast cancer and accelerate early detection. Three grants were awarded as part of the Avon Safety Net program that currently funds over 100 hospitals across the country to ensure that all women have access to quality breast cancer services and care, regardless of their insurance or ability to pay. These new grants will fund patient navigators and vital equipment, which are both critical to quality care, and will reach women from New York City, northern suburbs, and in New Jersey. These grants are:
CHARLOTTE, NC: Oct 24 - 25, 2009 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Chapel Hill, NC) was awarded $300,000 for a research project that hopes to identify differences in the biomarkers present in healthy breast tissue adjacent to breast cancer and will research how these markers vary within and between individuals. The hope is that this research can help doctors understand who is at highest risk for breast cancer recurrence. Clemson University (Clemson, SC) was awarded $195,000 to support a research project that seeks to develop new ways to improve reconstructive surgery following a lumpectomy with a novel application of drugs to reduce tumor recurrence or metastases. Duke University (Durham, NC) was awarded $130,000 to support outreach to underserved and low income women in the Raleigh, Greensboro, and Charlotte communities and to provide patient navigation services to women diagnosed with breast cancer. Prior Avon funding was instrumental in Duke’s securing approval as a North Carolina State Breast and Cervical Cancer Program provider, which means that women participating in the free screening program are then eligible for State funded follow-up and treatment services. Medical University of South Carolina (Charleston, NC) was awarded $125,000 to support a patient navigation program that improves access to screening, diagnostics and treatment for underserved populations in the Charleston area.
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