The EIF REVLON Run/Walk For Women is pleased to announce the 2010 Beneficiaries.
These national and New York area beneficiaries are dedicated to researching the cause and cure of women’s cancers and providing support programs for women’s cancer patients and their families.
Actors Fund of America - Team 23
The Actors Fund’s Phyllis Newman Women's Health Initiative (PNWHI) serves women in the entertainment and performing arts community confronting cancer and other serious health diagnoses. PNWHI offers the patient navigation services through medical and support options, and provides guidance for basic life issues, e.g., returning to work, disability, as well as imparting coping skills through individual and group counseling. PNWHI is a portal to The Fund’s almost two-dozen other human services programs. (www.actorsfund.org)
Albert Einstein Cancer Center – Team 2026
The Psychosocial Oncology Program of the Montefiore-Einstein Cancer Center is one of the primary organizations to offer free counseling, education, and mind-body therapies to cancer patients/caregivers in Bronx, NY. Through EIF/Revlon support, the “Bronx Oncology Living Daily” Outreach Program will focus efforts on reaching out to the most underserved and socially isolated cancer patients in the Bronx with accessible and portable psychosocial support and care to meet their needs. (www.aecom.yu.edu/cancer/outreach)
CancerCare - Team 44
CancerCare’s Special Assistance Project for Underserved Women provides a full array of free support services to underserved women affected by breast and gynecological cancers and their loved ones. Services include individual/group counseling, information and educational programs about cancer and its treatment, practical help, and referrals. For women who meet eligibility requirements, the project also provides financial assistance for transportation to and from treatment, homecare, childcare, and pain medication. (www.cancercare.org)
Gilda's Club NYC - Team 80
Gilda's Club New York City creates welcoming communities of free support for everyone living with cancer - men, women, children and teens - along with their families and friends. Our innovative program is an essential complement to medical care, providing support groups, workshops, lectures and social activities, all free of charge. Funding will be used to help reach an expanding and more diverse membership at out Manhattan Clubhouse and at community satellites in Manhattan, Brooklyn and the Bronx. (www.gildasclubnyc.org)
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center - Team 502
Memorial Sloan-Kettering is designing new screening approaches for ovarian cancer in order to catch it in the earliest stages. Though ovarian cancer has a relatively high mortality rate, this is entirely because the disease is difficult to diagnose in its early stages. One approach is to identify women with a higher likelihood of cancer in the first place. MSK is developing targets for molecular-based drug therapies based on recently recognized genomic classes of tumors. And, because ovarian cancer does not necessarily begin on the ovarian surface, MSK is studying neighboring anatomic structures in search of precursor lesions for ovarian cancer. Our long-term aim is to reduce the burden of ovarian cancer through screening, prevention, and improved treatments. (www.mskcc.org)
National Breast Cancer Coalition Fund (NBCC) - Team 3929
The mission of the National Breast Cancer Coalition Fund (NBCC) is to end breast cancer through the power of grassroots action and advocacy. NBCC increases funding for breast cancer research; monitors how those funds are spent; expands access to quality health care for all; and ensures that trained advocates influence all decision making that impacts breast cancer. (www.stopbreastcancer.org)
National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship (NCCS) - Team 3562
NCCS advocates for quality cancer care for all Americans and provides tools that empower people affected by cancer to advocate for themselves. Founded by and for cancer survivors in 1986, NCCS created the widely accepted definition of survivorship and considers someone a cancer survivor from the time of diagnosis through the balance of life. (www.canceradvocacy.org)
National Women's Cancer Research Alliance (NWCRA)
The goal of the Entertainment Industry Foundation's National Women's Cancer Research Alliance (NWCRA) is to accelerate promising research to treat cancer patients more safely and to increase patient access to some of the most significant clinical trials in the nation. Co-founded with Lilly Tartikoff, EIF NWCRA grants have yielded preliminary data demonstrating that all breast cancers are not alike, and that malignancies in the breast can be divided into clearly identifiable sub-types based on the pattern of their gene expression. That explains why clinical outcomes for women treated with standard one-size-fits-all treatment regimens vary widely. To improve these overall outcomes, NWCRA researchers are committed to the development of new treatments specifically designed for each sub-type of breast cancer. Institutions receiving continued support to advance this work are Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Harvard University, Jonsson Cancer Center (UCLA), University of Chicago and the National Breast Cancer Coalition. The NWCRA has already had success with this approach using the drug Herceptin. There is also a new research effort in identifying the unique pathways driving breast cancer in African-American women. Finally, there is a major research effort into the mechanisms driving ovarian cancer and how to treat this disease with new approaches. (www.eifoundation.org/programs/eifs-womens-cancer-programs)
Ovarian Cancer National Alliance - Team 136
The Ovarian Cancer National Alliance is the foremost advocate for women with ovarian cancer in the United States. The organization developed an educational program to inform health care professionals about ovarian cancer symptoms. This program, Survivors Teaching Students: Saving Women's Lives (STS), brings ovarian cancer survivors into health professionals' classrooms to share stories and information about the disease. STS has now educated 12,000 health care professionals and continues to expand in schools across the country. (www.ovariancancer.org)
William F. Ryan Community Health Network - Team 184
The William F. Ryan Community Health Center is a not-for-profit Community Health Center that provides high quality, affordable, primary, preventative and specialty health care and supportive services to minority and medically underserved populations. Funds will be used to support the Women's Health Education/Patient Navigator programs at Ryan's main site, its satellite, Ryan-NENA, and its affiliate Ryan/Chelsea-Clinton, which serve, collectively, the Upper West Side, Central Harlem, Washington Heights, Lower East Side, and Chelsea/Clinton neighborhoods of Manhattan.