Where the Money Goes

Susan G. Komen. The name is undoubtedly one of the most recognizable in the world, as is the symbolic pink ribbon that ties hundreds of thousands of supporters together in their fight to end a disease that claims the life of one out of every eight women.  

It has been 16 years since San Diego joined the national organization as one of its 125 affiliates that can be found in the United States, Europe and Puerto Rico. Located in the United Way Building on Murphy Canyon Road, Komen San Diego funds programs and provides services to local women, receiving about 10 calls a day from women who are either in need of a mammogram or have just received a breast cancer diagnosis. The local affiliates mission: to help uninsured women and their families along every step of the breast health journey; from education, outreach, mammograms and diagnostics, to surgeries, chemotherapy, radiation and materials and financial support like meals, mortgage payments, child care, prosthetics and wigs.

“Many people don’t understand the difference between the San Diego Komen affiliate and the national organization,” said San Diego director, Laura Farmer Sherman. Or, for that matter, the difference between the 3-Day, 60 mile walk held in cities throughout the country, or the San Diego Race For the Cure.  

“Money that walkers raise to participate in the Susan G. Komen 3-Day for the Cure goes directly to the national organization for breast cancer research.” Next to the U.S. Government, Susan G. Komen for the Cure is the largest funder of breast cancer research in the world.

“But entry fees and money raised by participants for the San Diego Race for the Cure stays right here in San Diego,” Farmer Sherman said. “Seventy five cents of every dollar is given to the local organizations that provide the services we support.

Now in its 16^th year, 15,000 are expected to participate in the November 6 event that wends its way through Balboa Park.

“It costs $125 for a digital mammogram,” Farmer Sherman said. “So we say to people, “Your ($35 registration fee) gets us to the start line. If they raise even a few dollars more, and you multiply that by 15,000… think of how much closer we can get to the finish line.”

Farmer Sherman said that every two years Komen San Diego does a “needs assessment” taking a look at who is being diagnosed with breast cancer, how old they are, do they have health insurance? “Every decision (regarding distribution of money) is made based on these community profiles.

“We take a clear snapshot of breast cancer in San Diego to create a profile. “And then we ask the harder questions, like, ‘What are the barriers that are keeping women from being diagnosed as soon as possible?’ We want every woman who needs a mammogram to get a mammogram.

“When a woman calls us, or San Diego 211, because she’s found a lump in her breast and doesn’t know what to do, a real person answers the phone and tells her where she can go for help. She may never know that it is Komen San Diego who provided the money that made that service possible.” 

To register for the San Diego Race for the Cure, click here.

Article by Nancy J. Robinson