Breast cancer is one of the deadliest, most common types of cancer, ranking second only to lung cancer as one of the leading causes of cancer-related deaths in the United States. It is the focus of countless ongoing research and development efforts today, and new discoveries and better treatments are published almost weekly. Whether a patient with breast cancer would feel hopeful about these cutting edge developments, or feel the opposite, often depends on the level of breast cancer treatment they can afford.
Fortunately, there are a number of organizations that offer financial aid to the sick. The Maine Breast Cancer Coalition is one of them, having helped hundreds of breast cancer patients with their health costs, as well as need for emotional support.
One of the coalition’s Support Service Fund’s recipients is Nichole Belanger. She was first diagnosed with breast cancer two years ago, August 2012. She was forced to juggle being a single parent, managing her own salon, and commuting to Scarborough from Bangor for her treatment sessions. Eventually, the stress became too much for her, which made her make the difficult decision to move. This was when she felt the heavy costs of fighting for her life.
She filed an application for help from the Maine Breast Cancer Coalition, and was approved under the Support Service Fund. Nichole could not have been happier when she received the news, as she was worrying about paying off her mortgage along with her pending surgeries. The organization shouldered her miscellaneous costs such as the electricity bill, transportation, and several other payables excluded from her insurance plan.
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“If it wasn’t for the coalition I would have had to cancel my next surgery and put that on hold and when you have cancer you don’t want to put things on hold because you want to put things behind you,” she said in a recent report on WCSH6.com.
The Maine Breast Cancer Coalition’s Support Service Fund is accepting applications from patients from all walks of life, regardless of economic standing. If you need help, or know someone who does, you may submit an application online through www.mainebreastcancer.org.
One of the struggles any cancer patient goes through while receiving treatment is hair loss. The US Oncology Research, a community-based cancer research network, teamed up with Baylor College of Medicine to conduct a clinical trial on “Scalp Cooling Alopecia Prevention Trial” (SCALP), to evaluate an existing scalp cooling system indicated for the reduction or prevention of chemotherapy-related hair loss.