Victoria Buffum Endowment Supporting Local Cancer Patients

The Victoria Buffum Endowment Committee at the University of Vermont Cancer Center has awarded the Cancer Patient Support Foundation's (CPSF) Emergency Fund $47,000. This fund provides emergency financial assistance for local cancer patients and their families.

Many of CPSF's patients report that they are more "scared about the money than the cancer." CPSF hopes to minimize that fear by providing financial support to cancer families in crisis. The Emergency Fund provides assistance to families to remove financial barriers to cancer treatment and help them meet their most basic needs. Today the CPSF Emergency Fund supports nearly 650 families each year. Since its inception this fund has awarded more than $2 million to families in Vermont and Northern New York. Cancer patients too often need to make difficult choices between paying for much needed prescriptions, or transportation to treatment instead of meeting their families’ basic needs including food, heat, and childcare. Requests to the Emergency Fund have risen dramatically. In 2016, $190,000 was awarded to 509 patients; last year, $223,000 was awarded to 649 patients.

CPSF would not be able to provide this level of support without our community partners like the Victoria Buffum Endowment. Since 2013 this fund has awarded CPSF’s Emergency Fund more than $150,000 to support local cancer patients and their families receiving treatment at the University of Vermont Medical Center. Buffum lost her battle with cancer in 2002 at the age of 58. According to the UVM Medical Center website, "She wanted to ease the burden of individuals (and their families) trying to understand their illness and move through the challenges of treatment. She funded this endowment through her generous personal philanthropy in support of her goal.” "

The Victoria Buffum Endowment has enabled CPSF to meet the needs of hundreds of local cancer patents," said Sarah Lemnah, CPSF Executive Director. "Victoria Buffum's legacy lives on in the patients we are able to serve due to her generosity and desire to lessen the burden on individuals and their families."

 Click here for more information on CPSF’s Emergency Fund.