The Red Devils- Supporting Breast Cancer Families in My Community

     My mother was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer in 2007 at the age of 34. I was 8 years old. I didn’t understand what those words meant in terms of my life or my family’s. She was strong and loved by everyone she knew. She was kind to strangers and made new friends wherever she went. Let’s just say you couldn’t have a conversation with her without unknowingly sharing your whole life story as well. She did go into remission in 2009, but the small glimmer of hope we had was snatched away in 2011 when the cancer came back and metastasized to her lymph nodes and brain. My mother passed away on February 1^st, 2015; that was a little more than 3 years ago and yet I still feel every rip that her disease tore into the fabric of our lives. The worst thing about a disease like cancer is that it holistically attacks everyone who hears the word; everyone who knows someone who is diagnosed. As a young child it starts with questions like “Why did mommy have to lose all her hair? Why does grandma have to move in? Why can’t mommy come out to play in the yard?” and then it slowly becomes a way of life. It became my normal. For a spouse like my father, the questions were along the lines of “How are we going to be able to afford treatment? Why us? Why now? What’s going to have to change?” and then they change to an obsession with a cure and heartbreak when one cannot be found. At the time of my mom’s diagnosis my parents had just sold the family store, gotten new jobs, and had bought a house. They wanted me to grow up away from the high crime and violence of the D.C. area. Instead they were blindsided, and my mom took charge like she always did; working and easing everyone’s fear while still going to chemotherapy and radiation. She was the one who connected my family to the nonprofit I want to discuss with you all.

     The Red Devils is a 501(c)(3) organization that was founded to “fund services that improve the quality of life for breast cancer patients and their families” in the state of Maryland. At the time of my mom’s initial diagnosis they provided my family with funds for my mother’s co-payments, prescriptions, and treatments. Their help allowed her to get genetic testing. I could never repay such a gift; one that allows me to live a life knowing that I am not genetically at risk for breast cancer. The Red Devils provided us with funds for groceries, house cleaning, gas cards, parking at the hospital. They couldn’t cure my mom’s cancer, but they could help to aid cancer’s financial burden. For my mom, it meant she could step away from her job at the bank and take her long-term leave at home. It relieved so much of her stress and allowed for her to grow stronger and stronger which led to a 2-year remission period. In those 2 years my mom was my mom again, no longer a cancer patient; no longer “sick”. She came outside and played tennis with me, she taught me to cook, she told me she loved me without worrying it would be the last time. The Red Devils helped her be able to do that, just like it has helped 7,582 other Maryland breast cancer patients in the span of 15 years.

     Between 2002 and 2017, the organization has invested $3,557,094 towards helping patients.  $2,169,827 has gone towards family support, $782,561 to medical services, and $604,706 to transportation. Family support is defined as funds needed for meals, groceries, house cleaning, home care, rent, utilities, mortgage, child care, etc. Medical services are considered to be anything having to do with co-payments, prescriptions, treatments, procedures, prosthetics, genetic testing, etc. And transportation support includes cab fare, vouchers, gas cards, metro passes, parking, toll, and automotive repairs. With these funds, The Red Devils have been able to support 5,500 breast cancer families so that their loved ones could either start or remain in treatment. The organization puts a lot of emphasis on making themselves an easily accessible resource to patients. Like my mom, patients are referred to the organization by any medical staff or social worker from any one of their 46 partnered hospitals in the area. This way the organization can make themselves readily available to anyone who needs them without having to access a patient’s situation on a case by case basis. In this way they are utilizing the already available resources of the hospital staff and social workers who would have a better understanding of what a patient needs. While looking over their 2016 IRS 990 form, which can be found through Charity Navigator, I thought it would be important to mention that a breakdown of their expenses for 2016 showed that 63.2% of funds went towards families, 22.05% went towards fundraising, and 14.7% went to overhead costs. Although we’ve discussed that ideally an organization should be spending more than 70% on their programs, it’s important to note that the organization brought in nearly three times the amount they spent on fundraising; making a net fundraising income of $319,265. The organization also meets several of the criteria we have looked for in previous organizations. Indicated on their 990 is that The Red Devils has no material diversion of assets, an independent voting board, documented meetings shared with the governing body, a written conflict of interest policy and whistleblower policy amongst its staff, and a records retention and destruction policy.

     The last point I want to make about The Red Devils is that each and every person who works with them has a shared passion. The name of the organization itself pays homage to the chemotherapy drugs many breast cancer patients know as “The Red Devil” because of its bright red color and its substantial toll on the body. I’ve met many people who have worked for or in association with The Red Devils. Some have come from businesses and others from the participating hospitals, but we all share the same scars. Breast cancer links us like a lifeline. Many a time my family and I found these people to be like our life preserver when we were being dragged out to sea. That first year we almost didn’t celebrate Christmas, but we were connected with a group of women who came over to decorate the house, bring us gifts, and give us food for a Christmas dinner. Later, my mother, who only had a learner’s permit at the time, was desperate to get to a doctor’s appointment. She ended up in a car accident because she couldn’t find anyone else to drive her. The X-rays from her accident revealed that her cancer had returned. We were almost instantaneously connected with a woman who could drive my mom to her appointments and treatments from then on. My mother’s cancer brought us into a much broader community- one that The Red Devils are a big part of in Maryland. Without them it would be like a sinking ship with no life rafts; thousands left to drown at sea. Breast cancer is a fast-acting disease that can get progressively worse every day that a patient goes without treatment. Our donation would go directly to a breast cancer family ensuring that they can receive the most stress-free treatment as soon as possible.  We could provide the life raft that prevents them from drifting out to sea.

For more information on The Red Devils visit: https://www.the-red-devils.org/about-us/

Their Charity Navigator page is: https://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.profile&ein=743070929

*they are not rated on Charity Navigator because they do not have more than $1M in annual revenue

For more on my family’s journey with cancer:

http://www.carrollcountytimes.com/news/local/ph-cc-emily-jew-20141220-story.html

https://carrollmagazine.com/small-miracles/