Pink Fund unveils revealing campaign highlighting unseen hardships of breast cancer.

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Apr 25, 2023, 08:00 ET

Eyes Up Here shifts the focus to the financial part of the breast cancer fight.

BINGHAM FARMS, Mich., April 25, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Pink Fund, a nonprofit tackling the financial side effects of breast cancer, launches Eyes Up Here, an eye-catching awareness campaign that shifts focus to the lesser-known financial burdens of the disease.

Theresa Strehl is a recipient of Pink Fund. She is one of the 30 models who participated in Pink Fund's Eyes Up Here campaign.

Pink Fund is dedicated to providing women and men in active treatment with up to 90 days of non-medical cost-of-living expenses for housing, transportation, utilities and insurance, paid directly to their creditors. The nonprofit was founded by Molly MacDonald, a breast cancer survivor whose financial hardships inspired her to create the organization.

MacDonald had recently been through a financially devastating divorce when she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2005. She was transitioning between jobs, and her family's already tight budget was immediately overburdened with the addition of a monthly COBRA health insurance payment.

Without her income, within three months her home was in foreclosure. When MacDonald's quest to Get Help wasn't successful, she became determined to Give Help to other breast cancer patients suffering from lost income while undergoing treatment.

"When people think of breast cancer they think of the toxic physical side effects of treatment, but there is another side effect that is just as challenging, known as financial toxicity," says MacDonald. "When lost income collides with high deductibles and copays, patients are forced to make impossible choices. The reality is patients are making unimaginable decisions, like whether they can afford to pay for the mortgage or their medication – I know because I've experienced it."

The organization has experienced more than a 50% increase in requests for financial assistance in the last year, making the need for individual donors, family foundations, grants and corporate support greater than ever.

Eyes Up Here includes striking and provocative imagery of real breast cancer patients and survivors who have received assistance from Pink Fund and experienced the financial burden of this disease first hand.

Theresa Strehl, one of the photo shoot participants, was the sole provider of income for her family when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She was on the verge of losing her mobile home, and her corporate retail job became nearly impossible to perform. She works in claims, which means she is lifting anything from five to 65 pounds. Theresa managed to take only one month off of work between treatment and surgery.

"They tell you not to worry, they tell you stress is your enemy – then you get a bill the size of two small houses," says Strehl. "Without Pink Fund I would've had to add homelessness to my list of things to deal with."

MacDonald hopes Eyes Up Here will help establish more corporate relationships, so Pink Fund can continue to serve an ever-growing number of patients in need of financial support.

"Corporate America has an opportunity to make a real, tangible and timely difference in the lives of breast cancer patients in active treatment by getting involved with Pink Fund," says MacDonald. "Some of their employees are affected, so when they support us, they're supporting these patients and their families while they're unable to work."

Eyes Up Here launches with connected TV, social, website, search, print, and out-of-home media targeting corporate partners, donors and patients in need of assistance.

"We hope this campaign will begin to educate the public that breast cancer has another side to the fight," says MacDonald. "While ongoing research is critically important to advance treatment protocols that extend and save lives, the reality is that if one cannot afford the cost of care, no amount of research is going to improve their survivorship outcomes."

Watch the Eyes Up Here video. To learn more about Pink Fund, visit www.pinkfund.org.

About Pink Fund
Pink Fund is an authorized 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that provides 90-day non-medical cost-of-living expenses on behalf of breast cancer patients in active treatment, so they can focus on healing, raising their families, and returning to the workplace. Pink Fund creates a financial bridge to help meet basic needs, decrease stress levels, and allow breast cancer patients in active treatment to focus on healing while improving survivorship outcomes.

SOURCE Pink Fund