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Grant Recipient Spotlight
 The ROSE History
The ROSE started nearly 25 years ago when General Surgeon, Dixie Melillo, M.D. and Hospital Public Relations Administrator, Dorothy Weston Gibbons began a mission to provide mammograms to any woman regardless of her ability. In 1986, far too many women were showing up at Dr. Melillo’s office with late stage breast cancer…cancers long past a time when they could be treated…cancers so advanced that the only thing a physician could do was hold the woman’s hand while she died. The reasons these women waited so long was 1) they didn’t know about mammography, 2) the didn’t have a physician to order it or 3) they didn’t have the money or insurance to cover the cost of a mammogram. Some told us that ‘Even if they could find a free mammogram, what would happen if something was found? They wouldn’t be able to get treatment. “It is better,” they told us, “to ignore it and hope it goes away.’
Isn’t it ironic that today, we face the same challenges in serving the uninsured? Except today, there is one huge difference: Susan G. Komen for the Cure Houston Affiliate. In 1986, the Komen-Houston Affiliate had not started and it would be 5 long years before we received that first $9,000 grant from the newly formed Affiliate. To us, it was all the money in the world.
The Houston Affiliate’s Partnership and Support
Throughout our history, The Rose’s success has been its ability to serve so many women in such unique and far reaching ways. Every major milestone and every new service can be truly attributed in some part to the partnership with the Houston Affiliate. In 1994, a gift of $20,000 allowed us to start our first ultrasound program. In 2001, to our desperate need to add stereotactic equipment for biopsies, Komen responded with a $360,000 grant…not three hundred, not three thousand but three hundred thousand dollars…it was the largest equipment grant that The Rose had ever received. As the community need increased, so did Komen’s support. Today, the Affiliate provides significant grant support which ensures screening diagnostic and treatment services to over 2500 women at The Rose each year. From our Capital Campaign in 2002 and to the 2009 launch of Digital Conversion, Komen was there. In 2008, we launched our second Mobile Mammography Unit a joint gift from Komen and the Pink Ribbons Project which served 2,800 women during its first year on the road.
The Impact of Collaborations
Komen’s decision to only consider collaborative proposals merited the attention from the national Chronicle of Philanthropy. Their reporter asked “I’ve never heard of non-profits actually sharing funding or writing proposals that include each other! How did that happen in Houston Texas?” I answered: “Komen!”
Today, The Rose collaborates with 21 other nonprofits, through our Mobile Mammography program, providing their clients diagnostic services or as our Patient Navigation Services help women access treatment. With Komen’s support, last year, The Rose and Collaborating Partners reached an additional 2500 women. Komen’s encouragement (or insistence) that “we play well with each other” has built a collaborative spirit that literally carried us through the worst storm in current history. Hurricane Ike ravaged our area and devastated our primary Safety Net facility: UTMB Galveston. Through the long 18 months that followed, it was the strength of the collaborations that ensured care for women—many who had lost everything.
Success Stories
It would be difficult to pick one woman’s story from so many. In the past 20 years of Komen funding has opened pathways for over 40,000 women served at The Rose.
I think first of Ana, who recently lost her battle. She was the first young women to be diagnosed through The Rose Young Women’s Clinic. She was 31 when diagnosed and her family told us that ‘without The Rose, Ana would have died in that first year but now her 6 year old son had five years of memories of his mother.’ Those memories were made possible by Komen Houston Affiliate who truly understand the plight of young women.
Jeri called us from a telephone booth, still carrying ‘drainage tubes’ from her recent mastectomy, she needed chemotherapy and was told to go find another doctor since she didn’t have insurance. The Rose was able to help her, but it was her story and others that we carried to Komen Houston Affiliate and in 2002, the Komen Treatment Fund was started. The Fund maximized the work of patient navigators, another Komen funded area of support, and The Rose Physician Network. Until the changes with Medicaid Breast and Cervical Cancer Program in 2007, the Treatment Fund was all that stood between life and death for between fifteen and twenty women every year.
Or the woman I met last week who was at The Rose because of the collaboration we have with Health Center of Southeast Texas. Once a month, our transportation van arrives in Cleveland and brings 12-15 women to The Rose where they receive services and then we drive them back home. I said to one women waiting in the conference room that I knew it had been a long for her, (all the women have to be ready for pick-up before 7 AM) but she responded with: Don’t you worry about that. This is the first healthcare I’ve had in 9 years.’
Nine years? Most of us can’t imagine going without some kind of healthcare for nine years.
Oh! Did I mention the transportation van…that was because of the Houston Affiliate connected the Ford Motor company to The Rose over 8 years ago.
The Story of Tammy remains one of my favorites and perhaps exemplifies the far reaching impact of Komen. Nearly ten years ago, Tammy Story, then 38 years old, single mom came to The Rose. A year prior to that she had remarried and somehow in the transition to a new life, new home and new husband, she never realized that she wasn’t on her husband’s insurance plan. When they married, she quit her job determined that after seven long years of raising her three children alone, she would devote her time to being a full time mother.
When Tammy discovered the lump in her breast and almost as frightening that she didn’t have insurance, her physician encouraged her to go to The Rose because they would let her ‘pay out the cost of a mammogram.”
Tammy needed a lot more than a mammogram. When she burst into tears as Dr. Hoagland was telling her that she needed an ultrasound and possible biopsy, learned of the depth of her problems and lack of financial resources. We provided all her care through our Sponsorship Program, funded by Komen Houston Affiliate, and once her cancer was confirmed, patient navigators moved her into treatment.
Throughout the long year ahead, Tammy not only fought the battle against cancer but also faced a divorce, when new husband told her: “he hadn’t counted on cancer as part of their marriage.” Somehow, with the help of friends, church, The Rose, and many other resources, Tammy managed to keep a roof over the boys’ head, survived treatment, found a job and became our greatest spokesperson and advocate. With and without hair, she arrived at presentations, bravely sharing a story most women will never experience.
Last year, Tammy became a member of our board and during a Rose Open House, I overheard her tell one of our guests-- “if it were not for The Rose and Komen, my boys would not have a mother.”
Tammy’s story inspires us and reminds us why we do what we do. .
From state of the art equipment to direct medical services and patient navigation, to maximizing resources through collaborations to unimaginable hope for countless women and their families: all this and more has been part of Komen Houston Affiliate’s legacy to the women served by The Rose.
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