The announcement of the expansion of Promise Fund medical services brought out (front, l-r): Promise Fund CEO Audrey Brown; Promise Fund founder Nancy G. Brinker; Florida Lt. Governor Jay Collins, U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel; state Sen. Lori Berman; and Promise Fund board members Mami Kisner and Eric Brinker. Promise Fund’s mission is to improve survivorship from breast and cervical cancers by providing guided support and free to low-cost access to screenings and treatment. Photo provided
By Jan Engoren
With the promise to give every woman the opportunity to obtain health care regardless of who she is, where she lives or what income she has, the South Florida-based nonprofit Promise Fund has expanded its presence to include a clinic at Genesis Community Health Center in Boynton Beach.
“We can and must do everything in our power to ensure no woman dies simply because she lacked access to care,” Nancy G. Brinker said in an announcement about the expansion of the organization she founded in 2018 to fight breast and cervical cancers. “That has always been our mission — and our promise.”
Brinker also founded Susan G. Komen for the Cure in honor of her sister, who died from breast cancer in 1980.
After working tirelessly to raise funds for breast cancer research through Susan G. Komen for the Cure, Brinker has shifted her focus to early detection and prevention screenings for both breast and cervical cancers. The Promise Fund mission is to improve survivorship by providing guided support and free to low-cost access to screenings to women who don’t have adequate health insurance.
The Boynton Beach office is at 709 S. Federal Highway, Suite 4. Promise Fund has three other clinics after also recently adding BCOM Broward Community & Family Health Centers in Hollywood; and a second FoundCare site, FoundCare/Yolette Bonnet Center in West Palm Beach. The original FoundCare is on South Congress Avenue in Palm Springs.
Each site offers essential women’s health services to underserved populations, including mammograms, Pap smears, clinical breast exams, diagnostics and treatment.
West Palm Beach patient Vanina Gatica was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 46. In a video on Promise Fund’s website, she speaks of the help she received from her patient navigator, Aydeivis Jean Pierre, and others.
“My son, my daughter and husband came to my mind, and I was thinking what life would be for them if I was not around,” Gatica says. “It was hard to think what was coming.”
She expressed worry about the cost of diagnostic MRIs, ultrasounds and 3D mammograms and wondered how she could afford it.
Promise Fund Chief Operating Officer Karen Patti, who lives in Delray Beach, says the organization was designed to be a model of care and was founded with the idea of creating a system that could be replicated in other communities.
“It’s very exciting,” she says, noting that if they are caught early, breast cancer is 99% curable and cervical cancer, 95% curable.
“Nancy’s vision is to educate communities and make sure all women have access to services,” Patti says. “We meet women where they are and apply what we’ve learned to ensure every woman can access early detection and screenings.”
About 1 in 8 women in the United States will be diagnosed with invasive breast cancer during their lifetimes, with an estimated 317,000 new cases and 42,700 deaths from the disease expected this year in women and men, the American Cancer Society says.
In addition, about 13,000 new cases of cervical cancer will be diagnosed and about 4,000 women will die of this cancer in 2025, according to the American Cancer Society.
Through education and outreach, Promise Fund has engaged more than 109,000 women in South Florida, including nearly 20,000 women who have been screened and 266 women who have received cancer treatment.
“We know early detection saves lives,” says Promise Fund CEO Audrey Brown. “We are here to give guidance, and our health navigators are here to help women on their health care journey.
“We want to increase survivorship from breast and cervical cancers to make Palm Beach one of the healthiest counties in Florida,” she says.
Each site features 3D mammography equipment and AI technology from Hologic, along with diagnostic imaging and ultrasounds, cervical screenings, and treatment (LEEP and colposcopy).
In addition to securing the equipment and funding necessary, Promise Fund has embedded each center with a navigator who provides guided support to women throughout the process.
Research has shown that patients who have worked with navigators have significantly better outcomes.
“We want to be a model for the country,” says Patti. “If we can do it here in Florida, we can do it anywhere — no excuses.”
Jan Engoren writes about health and healthy living. Send column ideas to jengoren@hotmail.com.
Free mammograms
Promise Fund asks that patients register in advance at 877-427-7664.
• Oct. 4, 8 a.m.–2 p.m., Intracoastal Park, 2240 N. Federal Highway, Boynton Beach
• Oct. 17, 8 a.m.–3 p.m., St. Joseph’s Episcopal Church, 3300 S. Seacrest Blvd., Boynton Beach
• Oct. 29, 9 a.m.–2 p.m., Delray Beach Public Library, 100 W. Atlantic Ave.
Learn more: On Oct. 5 from 3-5 p.m. at St. Joseph’s, Promise Fund will help women learn about free and low-cost health care.
Online: thepromisefund.org
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