Upcoming Events
Eve of Hope, part of Oya Salon's Sixth Annual Breast Cancer Survivor Week
A romantic evening of fashion, fellowship, food and fun October 24, 20126:00pm to 9:00 pm
Sunset Center in Carmel
Sam Fleetwood
BCAGMP Board Member
In Loving Memory
Friends around the world and the local breast cancer community lost a dear companion and advocate when Sam Fleetwood, accomplished sailor, writer and editor, died unexpectedly March 6 in Monterey, California.
For the last 14 years, in six-month segments, Sam and her husband Bill have circumnavigated the globe on their 50-foot sailboat, the Blue Banana. They spent alternative half years in Monterey. They visited and lived in more than 40 countries, experiencing the cultures and surviving challenges such as the SE Asia Tsunami and Pirate Alley. Along the way, Sam made a host of friends who appreciated her sailing skills, her love of life and her generous spirit. Sam was multi-lingual, an adventure lover and an accomplished writer. Her articles were published in sailing magazines and she was an editor for the Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey.
It was several years into their journey that Sam was diagnosed with breast cancer in Australia where they stayed for treatment and surgeries. Thousands of miles, several oceans and four years later in Turkey severe neck pains brought her unscheduled return to Monterey where the breast cancer was found to have metastasized to her vertebra. This new development required regular infusions generally administered in a hospital setting. Undaunted, Bill underwent training to learn to give the necessary infusions and they set out again with the necessary drugs under refrigeration in their galley. Sam wrote an article about this adventure called "Cruising Infusions." During the next few years they continued in this way, with Bill giving the regular infusions on the boat or wherever they happened to be until the fall of 2011 when Sam's further metastasis brought them abruptly home.
Sam joined the BCAG board of directors in 2008 and was a valued member, particularly writing grants and helping with fund raising. Whether at sea or in Monterey, Sam stayed in close touch, sharing her ideas and weighing in on decisions. We are grateful for all that Sam gave to BCAG. Perhaps most of all we are grateful for her example: Sam was not defined by her disease and she lived life to its fullest.
Welcome
The Breast Cancer Assistance Group of the Monterey Peninsula* (BCAG) is an organization of breast cancer survivors who work to improve the lives of local breast cancer patients and their families. The primary activities of BCAG are sponsoring educational programs and raising funds to provide financial assistance to women in the California Central Coast area who have breast cancer.
The need for financial support is widespread. The physical and emotional ravages of breast cancer are widely recognized. One in seven women will experience this devastation. Some will bear the additional burden of severe financial difficulties related to the disease. In most cases, an entire family is financially impacted when a woman has breast cancer. To assist in such cases, BCAG gives "Special Needs" grants to women who apply and meet the requirements for recipients. In the last ten years BCAG has awarded hundreds of "Special Needs" grants.
Grant recipients are primarily low-income, but there are many exceptions because the costs of breast cancer treatments can be overwhelming for middle-income families as well. Often the applicants are not working because of their illness, they may have lost their insurance along with their job, or they never had insurance or their insurance co-payments are too high for them to pay without assistance. Many of the applicants are single-parent mothers. By the time they apply to BCAG they have exhausted their resources and they do not qualify for other assistance programs.
All local women who have had breast cancer are automatically members of BCAG, if they choose to participate. A Board of Directors is elected annually to secure finances, plan the educational programs and oversee all BCAG activities. A Medical Board of oncology physicians and practitioners serves as consultants. BCAG is a non-profit California corporation with tax exempt status as a 501(c)3 organization from the Internal Revenue Service.
*formerly the Breast Cancer Action Group of the Monterey Peninsula