The Gift of Hope Breast Cancer Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing financial support to low-income women with breast cancer.

I was thirty-nine years old, happily married, and a mother of two when my life changed forever. Finding a lump in my left breast alarmed me, but knowing that my mammogram three months earlier was normal, I put off going to the Doctor.

After several months passed and the lump was still there, I made an appointment to see my doctor. He was suspicious of the lump and advised me to have a biopsy. After a weekend of waiting anxiously, I got the results, and I was diagnosed with Breast cancer.

After my breast surgeon’s visit, he recommended a lumpectomy. I scheduled my surgery for 2 weeks later. At my post-operative checkup, the pathologist report stated that additional cancer cells were found in my breast. The thought was that Chemo and radiation were enough to treat my cancer. But after many weeks of living with the thought that I still had cancer cells in my breast, I made the difficult decision to have my breast removed. My mastectomy and reconstructive surgery were done exactly one month after my lumpectomy; I started chemo after six weeks of healing.

During my chemo treatment, I experienced an overwhelming feeling of love and support from family, friends, and my community. I felt the need to give something back to women who did not have the support and means that I was fortunate enough to have. This need developed into the Gift of Hope Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to providing financial support to low-income breast cancer patients in the State of Florida.