The Terri Brodeur Breast Cancer Foundation takes great pride in directing its funds directly to scientists who are working to better understand this disease.
Despite the goodwill of numerous organizations that raise money in the name of breast cancer, many of them have overhead costs that divert money from research. What’s more, the National Institute of Health is reducing the funds it gives to research, making outside-the-box research even more challenging. To address this issue, Norma Logan and Sandy Maniscalco created the Terri Brodeur Breast Cancer Foundation. The foundation was named after a dear friend of Norma and Sandy, Terri Brodeur, who succumbed to breast cancer in 2005.
Terri’s spirit carries on, inspiring the foundation to remain committed to its mission of finding a cure. Today, the Terri Brodeur Breast Cancer Foundation has achieved a unique place among non-profit organizations. Thanks to intense efforts focused on sponsorship and volunteerism, the foundation is able to direct 100 percent of total gross fundraising efforts to breast cancer research.
The Mass General Cancer Center has been a grateful recipient of these funds. In 2015 and 2016, the Terri Brodeur Foundation provided research grants to Mihriban Karaayvaz, PhD, a post-doc in the lab of Leif Ellisen, MD, PhD, at the Mass General Cancer Center. In her research, Dr. Karaayvaz focuses on analyzing distinct cell populations from healthy mastectomy tissues of BRCA1/2 carriers and from tissues of patients undergoing reduction mammoplasty. Her studies are likely to have near-term impact, identifying new targets for breast cancer prevention for future clinical trials.
