The past year has been incredibly challenging for so many of us. Tragically, the pandemic has claimed many Bahamian lives. For everyone, it has disrupted life as we knew it. Hundreds of Bahamians with cancer were already in a fight for their lives when the pandemic hit. National lockdowns interrupted their treatment protocols causing an entirely new level of anxiety for these courageous warriors.

Through this most trying year, our Treatment Assistance Fund has remained active. During the past 15 months our Fund administrator, the Cancer Society of The Bahamas, continued to release money to Bahamians in need, enabling them to get their medicines whenever the possibilities opened up.

A special boost was felt in June 2020 when we received an earmarked donation of $25,000 from The Bahamas Charitable Giving Foundation (BCGF) to be used specifically to assist seniors. With supplemental income from our general fund, the generous gift has helped 30 elderly people pay for their medicines. Their fights include: Breast, Cervical, Colon, Lung, Lymphoma, Ovarian, Prostate, and Thyroid cancers, to name a few.

Our Executive Director, Susan Larson, remarked, “Given the global pandemic and the terrible sense of separation so many people were experiencing, it was especially gratifying to receive support from BCGF so that we could then, in turn, assist the elderly. As senior cancer patients, their sense of isolation and hopelessness during this pandemic must have reached new heights.”

Larson added, “We are deeply grateful for the generosity extended to us by BCGF, and at such a critical time.”

Our Treatment Assistance Fund is The Bahamas’ only permanent money cache reserved to help defray the cost of medicines and other cancer treatments for Bahamians fighting cancer. It is administered through a partnership with the Cancer Society of The Bahamas. We established the Fund more than a dozen years ago and replenish each year it from monies raised by participants at our annual Eleuthera event.