Grants up to $2500 available for breast cancer patients

By: Nora G. Hertel

From: wausaudailyherald.com

About $17,500 in cash is being offered to central Wisconsin breast cancer patients who could use the money to help with treatment and other expenses associated with the disease.

The Breast Cancer Treatment Fund of Central Wisconsin was seeded by a grant from Susan G. Komen, a national organization dedicated to ending breast cancer, and is available through March for women in Marathon and Lincoln counties. An advisory board managing the fund will determine which patients get help.

“We’d like to use up all that money,” said Pam Frary, a fund advisory board member, parish nurse for Eastside Parishes and a breast cancer survivor.

The fund opened in September and none of the cash has been given away because no one has applied — likely because no one knows it exists. Mandy Myszka, the fund coordinator, said she hopes applications will come in November after women get screened in October for Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Some women with breast cancer might have only catastrophic insurance, or need help paying for transportation and daycare while they go through a treatment, Frary said.

“We’re trying to decrease every single barrier to good care,” she said. “There is some flexibility with that funding.”

A coalition formed two years ago with representatives from local health care providers, which has since become the fund’s advisory board. The group researched needs in the area. Myszka said a lot of screening programs already exist for patients, so they turned their attention to helping with treatment costs.

Marathon and Lincoln counties were chosen as the focus because they have the most need within the seven-county central Wisconsin region, Myszka said. Excluding skin cancer, breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer in Wisconsin women.

Patients in breast cancer treatment, women and men, may be awarded up to $2,500 per grant cycle. Households up to 400 percent of the poverty level are eligible — that’s about a $63,000 annual income for a two-person household, and $95,400 for a household of four. Myszka welcomes inquiry calls and is happy to help people find additional funding even if they don’t qualify for her group’s award.

“We want to help remove some of that financial stress,” Myszka said. “Stress itself is not helping the body heal.”

Treatment and financial strain can cause emotional hardships too, because many women are used to being caretakers in their families, said Amanda Boreen, breast care coordinator for Marshfield Clinic in Weston and Wausau.

“I had one woman who said, ‘I need to put food on the table first and maybe make a copay for a medication later,’” Boreen said.

Going through treatment is a time of other tough decisions about treatment options.

“You’re worrying about your health care and you’re worrying about how you are going to pay for that,” said Terri McHugh, who is going through treatment for breast cancer at Marshfield Clinic in Weston.

The Rib Mountain resident has health insurance but said $60 co-pays for twice-weekly visits add up. Her part of radiation treatment alone this year totaled $1,800. And while her employer was very accommodating, she had to give up her job.

“I’m on disability now,” McHugh said. “I’d much rather be working.”

She’s sought some financial assistance for her expenses and appreciates those resources for herself and for other women fighting similar battles, especially those without health insurance.

Frary has seen women forgo more extensive treatment options to reduce their expenses. And if a women survives her cancer, the costs don’t end there, Frary said.

“It’s a little time bomb — tick, tick, tick, tick, tick — that can reoccur,” Frary said. “You stay connected for the rest of your life.”

The board hopes to get more grant funding in the next cycle to expand the program to people in all counties of the central Wisconsin affiliate of Susan G. Komen — Taylor, Langlade, Wood, Portage and part of Shawano counties.