Funds Raised at Get Your Rear in Gear- Colchester Were Awarded to The Cancer Patient Support Foundation’s Emergency Fund

The Colon Cancer Coalition awarded $10,000 to the Cancer Patient Support Foundation’s (CPSF) Emergency Fund. The money for this grant came from funds that were raised from the Get Your Rear in Gear – Colchester event, held each year in August at Bayside Park.
 
CPSF’s Emergency Fund provides financial assistance for local cancer patients
while they are in treatment. Funds are used to help families access medical care such as medical copays and deductibles, procedures not covered by insurance, integrative health offerings, and prescriptions. In addition, this fund helps families with their most basic needs including housing, utilities, childcare, food, and transportation. Many patients delay life-saving treatment simply due to the inability to pay for gas for their cars to get to the hospital. Many families struggle when a breadwinner is sick and is unable to work. These families find that basic everyday necessities become unmanageable burdens. Some patients try to stretch out their prescriptions, so they can provide for their families' needs. Some ask for money for food, heat, temporary housing, and childcare for their young children while they are in treatment.
​
"The support from the Colon Cancer Coalition will allow us to be able to help an even greater number of local colon cancer patients through our Emergency Fund," said Sarah Lemnah, the Executive Director of CPSF. "The need for emergency financial assistance for local colon cancer patients is continuously increasing. Many patients have shared with us that they are more scared about the money than the cancer. In so many cases, the treatments prescribed to cancer patients make it nearly impossible for them to work, causing significant financial hardship. CPSF is dedicated to making sure local cancer patients have the financial support they need so they can focus on getting well."

For over 17 years the Cancer Patient Support Foundation has supported cancer patients and their families, in Vermont and Northern New York in a time of extraordinary need, by providing financial assistance, underwriting counseling services, and acting as a resource during diagnosis, treatment, and recovery. For more information on the Cancer Patient Support Foundation or its Emergency Fund call 802-488-5495 or go to www.cpsfvt.org

About the Colon Cancer Coalition
The Colon Cancer Coalition is a non-profit organization based in Minneapolis, Minn. dedicated to encouraging screening and raising awareness of colon cancer. The organization’s signature Get Your Rear in Gear® and Tour de Tush® event series are volunteer-driven in communities throughout the United States. Since 2004, over $5 million dollars have been granted by the Colon Cancer Coalition to build and sustain programs that promote early prevention, screening, and patient support services for this disease. By making the words colon, colorectal and colonoscopy a part of the everyday language, we believe we can overcome the fear and decrease deaths from this largely preventable cancer. For more information visit ColonCancerCoalition.org.

---