Cancer patients and their families face multiple decisions, starting with their treatment options, and must deal with a myriad of practical challenges, from child care to financial issues. They often find themselves scrambling in all directions for information, education and resources.
Susan Chaityn Lebovits and Beth Freeman were all too familiar with the toll this takes on patients and families. Susan, a former Boston Globe correspondent, lost a childhood friend to leukemia, and helped her neighbor research resources while she battled multiple myeloma. Beth, a cancer survivor herself, had also supported her father through his struggle with lung cancer. Taking these shared experiences, they came together to create Boston Cancer Support to provide one central location where patients and families in Massachusetts could easily access and navigate resources for their most common needs.
In a user-friendly format, Boston Cancer Support’s website lists sources for financial aid, prescription drug assistance, prosthetics, clinical trial information, child and respite care, subsidized temporary lodging, support groups and more. The site also categorizes the information by geographic area.
In addition, Boston Cancer Support operates two community outreach programs. The CancerCollaborative™ brings together a wide variety of medical professionals and healthcare organizations within the same community to learn how they can best work together to support cancer patients. Treatment Transport™, in partnership with Lyft, helps patients travel to their medical appointments.
Boston Cancer Support also partners with the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, the American Cancer Society and the American Lung Association of the Northeast.
