The Cancer Couch Foundation Media Kit
Founder – Rebecca Timlin-Scalera, PhD
Dr. Rebecca Timlin-Scalera, Founder & Executive Director of The Cancer Couch is also a wife, mother, Neuropsychologist, writer, and lifelong athlete (Division 1 College Soccer Player). She was living a full, healthy life when she was completely blindsided by an advanced breast cancer diagnosis in September 2015 and told she might have just 3 years to live. She has no family history, performed regular self-exams, as well as receiving annual mammograms and ultrasounds for dense breasts.
“One of the most difficult days of my life was the day I found out I had breast cancer. My life changed forever. Initially told it had already spread to my bones and I was at Stage 4, metastatic breast cancer, I found out the prognosis was just 2-3 years. Time stood still while I wrestled with this gut-wrenching news.”
Weeks later, Rebecca experienced a miracle. Her bone biopsy came back negative – with no evidence of cancer. It had not yet spread to the bones, and she was upgraded to Stage 3C and given “a chance for a cure.” Suddenly, instead of being devastated by having Stage 3C cancer, she was brought to her knees in tears of gratitude that it was not Stage 4…and thus began her education on the huge (life and death) difference between early and late stage, or metastatic breast cancer – and the dire need for more funding for metastatic breast cancer- which is the basis for this foundation.” Learn more by watching our 2 Minute Foundation Video and/or our 7 Minute Blog/Foundation Video with an exciting sizzle reel to see how we got started and what we are all about.
Rebecca also started writing a blog (that is now becoming a book) about her experiences going from “shrink/doctor to patient” in the matter of a day – and ending up on the other side of "the couch." This experience, especially the Stage 4 diagnosis, has obviously given her a whole new perspective on life – and she writes about it from a place of humor and gratitude, but mostly honesty.
“One of the most difficult days of my life was the day I found out I had breast cancer. My life changed forever. Initially told it had already spread to my bones and I was at Stage 4, metastatic breast cancer, I found out the prognosis was just 2-3 years. Time stood still while I wrestled with this gut-wrenching news.”
Weeks later, Rebecca experienced a miracle. Her bone biopsy came back negative – with no evidence of cancer. It had not yet spread to the bones, and she was upgraded to Stage 3C and given “a chance for a cure.” Suddenly, instead of being devastated by having Stage 3C cancer, she was brought to her knees in tears of gratitude that it was not Stage 4…and thus began her education on the huge (life and death) difference between early and late stage, or metastatic breast cancer – and the dire need for more funding for metastatic breast cancer- which is the basis for this foundation.” Learn more by watching our 2 Minute Foundation Video and/or our 7 Minute Blog/Foundation Video with an exciting sizzle reel to see how we got started and what we are all about.
Rebecca also started writing a blog (that is now becoming a book) about her experiences going from “shrink/doctor to patient” in the matter of a day – and ending up on the other side of "the couch." This experience, especially the Stage 4 diagnosis, has obviously given her a whole new perspective on life – and she writes about it from a place of humor and gratitude, but mostly honesty.
The Cancer Couch Foundation is a volunteer run, privately funded, non-profit organization. 100% of donations and event proceeds are matched and go straight to the cutting edge research we fund! Please support The Cancer Couch Foundation in our mission to accelerate treatment, and someday find a cure, for metastatic breast cancer.
Mission
To fund cutting edge scientists at world class cancer centers, exclusively focused on impactful research that will accelerate life-saving treatments for metastatic breast cancer (mbc) – as quickly as possible. To continue raising awareness of the impact of mbc through blog posts and putting names, faces and stories to the stats of this incurable disease.
Goals
- To make metastatic breast cancer a chronic, manageable disease in our lifetime.
- To raise awareness of the real facts about breast cancer:
- In the US alone >41,000 people die from mbc each year.
- 1 in 8 women will be diagnosed with invasive breast cancer in their lifetime.
- Men can get breast cancer too.
- Although 30% of those diagnosed with early stage breast cancer (Stages 1-3) will eventually develop metastatic breast cancer, and be re-staged to Stage 4, very little of breast cancer research funds (<7%) go to study this stage of the disease, the one that kills you.
- There are more and more treatments coming available for mbc, however, the average prognosis remains at 3 years.
- A woman dies of mbc every 13 minutes.
- Many breast cancer patients do not realize their breast cancer can metastasize even decades after initial diagnosis.
Progress
In just the first 6 months of inception, The Cancer Couch Foundation garnered amazing support from around the world and was able to put over $500,000 directly to mbc research at two of the world’s top rated cancer centers. In our second year, along with support from the MBC collective we were able to put 1.2 million dollars into MBC at our two cutting edge labs and over 1.7 million in less than two years:
- Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, MA and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in NYC each received $300,000 in 2017, funds were matched to total $600,000 at each institution.
- We are proud to fund Dr. Nikhil Wagle on his studies of Immunoprofiling of ER+ Metastatic Breast Cancer as well as the role of HER2 mutations in ER+ Metastatic Breast Cancer, and
- Dr. Sarat Chandarlapaty and his studies on CDK4 Inhibitors and tumor resistance to combination therapies.
- The Beth Calabotta Fund for Metastatic Breast Cancer Patients at The Blessing Foundation in Quincy, Illinois received $2000 in 2017.
- The Beth Davis Fund for Metastatic Breast Cancer Patients at the Norma Pfriem Breast Cancer Center in Fairfield, CT received $6400 in 2017.
- We have formalized corporate sponsorships with Vegalash, Ford Motor Company and Bliss Spa Socks.
- We have formed a partnership with Hope Scarves & Twisted Pink to form the MBC Collective - pooling our money to fund MBC research.
Plans
- To continue to raise money through on-line and mail-in donations, through events and sponsors, and we will continue to host the annual (sold-out two years in a row!) The Cancer Beat concert every fall is our signature fundraising event. The English Beat played the first year and Howard Jones played this year. We raised over $225,000 both years!
- We plan to grow our annual, incredibly fun, last day of school ice cream Scoops Challenge in June-which has gone national. Our ultimate goal is to have a Scoops Challenge held in each of the 50 states on the last day of school! We are thrilled to have the support of The Ford Motor Company through their Models Of Courage Program to help promote and sponsor marketing materials for this event.
- To maintain a “lean” administrative profile which separates us from larger organizations in that we have zero overhead costs, and can be nimble and efficient in executing our mission, and giving our donors a more direct connection to the research.
- To continue identifying and funding only the most cutting edge scientists and impactful studies in the field of mbc by remaining immersed in the mbc community via social media, research, relationships, and careful vetting through our medical advisor and patient advocates to maintain a well-rounded research “portfolio.”
- To ensure there is no redundancy amongst the studies we fund, a mandate of our funding is that our researchers are collaborating with each other across institutions.
- To continue creating Angel funds. When a community fundraises for The Cancer Couch, we give 10% back to the local cancer center in honor of an mbc patient to help those with mbc in financial need.
- We also plan to update readers and donors every year on the progress of the research we are funding, and remain completely transparent with our financial statements so you can see exactly where the money goes and when.
Dr. Rebecca Timlin-Scalera – Founder/Executive Director – The Cancer Couch Foundation
PO Box 1145 Southport, CT 06890
rebecca@thecancercouch.com
www.thecancercouch.com 203.820.8692
PO Box 1145 Southport, CT 06890
rebecca@thecancercouch.com
www.thecancercouch.com 203.820.8692