The foundation gives away thousands of dollars to support breast cancer patients — but some still don’t know about it, the chairwoman says
By Stefan Yablonski
The Saint Agatha Foundation is a nonprofit that provides financial support to qualified breast cancer patients across seven CNY and Mohawk Valley counties, meaning it gives free money to some cancer patients.
But, according to its chairwoman, many women are unaware of it.
Born in Manlius on June 10, 1968, Laurie Mezzalingua was the third of six children. She graduated from Manlius Pebble Hill in 1986 and Boston University in 1990.
In 1997, Laurie was diagnosed with breast cancer at 29. As she battled the disease, she became a passionate and vocal advocate for patient support.
A breast cancer patient for 12 years, she established the Saint Agatha Foundation in 2004.
She died on July 4, 2009.
But her spirit lives on.
The foundation partners with local hospitals and agencies to support patients in Onondaga, Cortland, Cayuga, Madison, Oneida, Oswego and Jefferson counties.
“We are trying to raise more awareness — because we are still finding out that many women aren’t aware of our foundation that is helping them with their breast cancer bills,” said Kathy Mezzalingua, chairwoman of the foundation and Laurie’s mother. “It’s hard to believe that after all these years, but it is true. Somehow we fall through the cracks when we can help so many women; we have money to give them.”
The foundation is dedicated to providing “support, comfort and care to breast cancer patients through financial assistance programs — allowing patients to focus on their treatment, not their bills,” she explained.
Funds are distributed to patients via both medical and non-medical service providers who apply on behalf of their patients or clientele.
Bills the foundation can assist with, once insurance has done its part, can include everything from clinical items like lab tests, infusion, radiation therapy, doctor’s appointments to nonmedical items like child care, transportation, household and legal expenses, she added.
“We originally had a base amount that was generated by my daughter before she died. She had some money and we have fundraised. We have been able to increase the fund as well as give the money away. So we have done pretty well,” Kathy said. “We have a place on our website (saintagathafoundation.org) where people can go to make donations. We’ve grown to the point where we can give away about a quarter of a million dollars a year.”
Over the last decade, the foundation has provided financial assistance to more than 7,035 breast cancer patients by providing grants in excess of $13.5 million to local hospitals and partner organizations.
Overall, it has provided $17.5 million in financial support to more than 10,000 breast cancer patients in Central New York, she added.
“We are in seven counties — Oswego being one of our excellent partners and Onondaga County of course. We are extending north, south, east, west. We don’t want to go as far as the major cities like Rochester or Buffalo or Albany,” she said. “We want to stay within Central New York because there is so much need there. That’s our focus; that’s our goal; to help these women, help them, as my daughter said to concentrate on their healing and not their bills.”
As she battled the disease, Laurie became a passionate and vocal advocate for patient support, according to her mother.
“A breast cancer diagnosis is a tough one. The first thing you think of is what about my job, my family, how am I going to afford all these expenses? So we take care of that so they can just heal, get better and move on,” Kathy said. “Laurie just felt so badly; she said, ‘we have got to help these people so they have the same opportunities that I do.’”
Saint Agatha Foundation joins many other institutions in Central New York in recognizing National Breast Cancer Awareness Month as a way to draw attention to the continuing and critical fight against breast cancer,
“We take this opportunity to spotlight our unique mission of providing financial support to breast cancer patients in our community, to help patients focus on overcoming their diagnosis instead of worrying about unmet financial stress they may be facing,” she said.
“We don’t actually do things on our own a lot. The only thing we really do on our own is the gala,” she said. “Some of the individual regions will have their own individual fundraisers. This gala is our major fundraiser, but we are hoping to do more for more visibility in the future.”
This year’s gala is set for Oct. 24 at the Syracuse OnCenter. For more information, visit their website.
“We have our administrative office in Pennsylvania — that is our national headquarters.
I’m still the president. I oversee the board. We meet three times a year; vote on all the decisions, all the grants,” she said. “I work on things weekly with my administrator. We have a woman in Syracuse through CancerConnects who helps with all the local things. With the regional, we leave it up to your organizers. We also give to places like the Y, support groups and we give to legal aid … we have a wide range of services.”
CancerConnects, Inc., is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization incorporated in New York in 2006, under the guidance and support of physicians, staff and cancer survivors/patients of Hematology-Oncology Associates of Central New York, P.C.
Saint Agatha tags on with other events to help raise awareness, she explained.
“I’m going to keep doing this for as long as I can, absolutely! And then one of my children is going to take over,” she said. “It’s a healthy, very healthy endowment that we want to continue in perpetuity.”