FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:
Sue Root
Director of Quality of Life
Genesys Hurley Cancer Institute
810.762.8226
sroot@ghci.org
November 20, 2020
(GENESEE COUNTY, MI) The women of Warwick Hills Golf and Country Club – in the midst of the COVID pandemic – once again broke records in fundraising efforts to help local breast cancer patients. This year the organization raised $171,000!
Genesys Hurley Cancer Institute (GHCI) patients are one recipient of these funds. This year, GHCI will receive $44,000.
“We are so grateful to the women of Warwick Hills who selflessly work throughout the year to help our cancer patients during a most vulnerable time in their lives,” announces Sue Root, director of Quality of Life services at GHCI.
The Pink Par-Tee 501c3 fund, created in 2010, provides financial support to breast cancer patients in active treatment who need help with basic needs such as rent, groceries and utility bills.
“These funds help relieve stress and worry so our patients can focus on healing,” Root finds.
According to Nancy Gignac, chairperson of Pink Par-Tee, “we were able to surpass all fundraising expectations this year because we kept our eyes on the goal, no matter how many obstacles we encountered this year.
“Our motto – ‘Together, we can make a difference,’ truly spoke volumes this year,” she adds. “The passion to help local women undergoing cancer treatment was overwhelming.”
Last year, the Pink Par-Tee group raised nearly $97,000. A portion of this money was donated to GHCI to support its mammogram clinic that is offered free to the community. Funds also went to the Pink Fund, a non-profit breast cancer organization that provides 90-day non-medical cost-of-living expenses to breast cancer patients in Genesee County who are in active treatment.
“In previous years, Genesys Hurley Cancer Institute, thanks to Pink Par-Tee funds, received more than 300 breast cancer care gift bags for our breast cancer patients undergoing treatment,” Root says. Chemotherapy bags as well as radiation therapy bags were distributed to our patients. Each contained needed more than $100 in products to help in the healing process – physically and emotionally, Root points out.
“We are so ecstatic to announce that – over the past several years – the Pink Par-Tee organization has provided more than $110,000 in financial support to patients of Genesys Hurley Cancer Institute,” Root adds. “We’ve been able to help countless women and ease their financial burdens.”
Pink Par-Tee began with two young mothers who were members of Warwick Hills Golf and Country Club to honor a friend who was diagnosed with breast cancer. Since its beginnings in 2010, the organization has raised close to $1 million – all to help in the fight against breast cancer.
“We conducted a survey of 587 breast cancer survivors who benefitted from Pink Par-Tee funds to see if the money we were raising was making a difference in their lives,” Gignac says. “We learned that about 1/3 of the recipients were more scared about how their treatment would affect their finances rather than their outcome.”
The survey also revealed that 64 percent of breast cancer patients were paying up to $5,000 in out of pocket medical related expenses, 21 percent were paying between $5,000 and $10,000, and 16 percent were hit with more than $20,000 in out of pocket costs.
In addition, 41 percent of the survey respondents said they skipped treatment or medication to save money. Forty percent are still in debt after treatment.
“A diagnosis of breast cancer is devastating for a woman as well as her loved ones,” Gignac notes. “It can drain a family emotionally, physically and financially. Our hope through Pink Par-Tee is to relieve some of this burden.
“We especially want to extend a huge thank you to our donors who helped us realize such a successful fundraising year in a time of such uncertainty.”
Genesys Hurley Cancer Institute provides the newest treatments and technology in a warm, welcoming, home-like setting – right here where you need us. Visit ghci.org for more information.
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