By Emily Williams
The Breast Cancer Research Foundation of Alabama on Jan. 10 made its largest donation ever – for $1,050,000 – to the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center at UAB for breast cancer research in Alabama.
The check was presented at a luncheon at The Club, where the foundation also announced recipients of its 2019 Pilot Grant Awards.
“It’s huge for UAB because it will enable a lot of studies that deal with very basic understanding of breast cancer, but also dealing with specific issues related to the population and what puts them at risk for breast cancer,” said Dr. Barry Sleckman, director of the center, “and then, of course, issues with the population and what makes it difficult for them to access the very best breast cancer treatment.”
This marks the largest donation the BCRFA has been able to present in its 24 years. It was made up of funds raised through a variety of year-round, community-driven events organized by the foundation and sales of specialty breast cancer research license plates.
“We talk about (how) awareness and breast cancer awareness – the first major awareness campaign, with the pink ribbon – was primarily for early detection,” said Sleckman.
The awareness focus has shifted, Sleckman said, to how important it is where a patient gets treated, no matter how bad the diagnosis is.
“Ten years ago, the treatments were pretty standard everywhere,” he said. “Now, with new research coming online so rapidly, it’s very important that, no matter how small the nodule is, that you go somewhere where you’re going to get the very latest in standard of care and the option to be involved in clinical trials that could affect your outcome in the long term.”
All of the donation remains in Alabama to support local research, which has the potential to make a national impact.
“I was diagnosed in 2008 with triple negative breast cancer, and I have been free of cancer since 2012,” said BCRFA board President Jill Carter. “So, this is really personal to me,” and has affected the lives of her relatives and friends, as well, she said.
Working with the BCRFA is just one way that Carter feels she can make a difference for the breast cancer patients who are being diagnosed today and those in the future.
“One in eight women will get breast cancer and one in a thousand men,” she said. “So, it has impacted almost everybody in one way or another. And it would be great if we could make a positive change and get rid of this disease.”
Events in 2019 that helped the BCRFA reach its record-breaking total were the city of Gardendale’s Charity Youth Football Tournament, which raised more than $6,000; and Cahaba Brewery’s CahabaQue, which netted more than $26,000.
About half of the total was raised through sales of the BCRFA specialty car tag sales. More than 13,000 vehicles in the state have the Breast Cancer Research tag, 2,400 of them in Jefferson County.
