THE Ellie FUND

The staff of Bay State Parent magazine is humbled with regards to the amazing women and families who make up our annual "Think Pink" issue. It has become one of our most rewarding projects, sharing the inspirational stories and lifesaving information and resources about breast cancer with you. Each year, we are moved to donate a portion of our "Think Pink" proceeds to an organization that touches us. This year we are proud to announce our choice: The Ellie Fund, a Needham-based nonprofit that truly helps women and their families manage the every day essentials of life (the practical stuff!) while dealing with cancer. Thank you Ellie Fund for all that you are doing for Bay State families!

E xciting. Awesome. Unbelievable. These are the words that Julie Nations uses to describe the Ellie Fund.

E Of course, one may think she is biased, since she is the director of the Needham-based nonprofit that offers life-care services to Massachusetts women suffering from breast cancer and their families. Their "Care for the Caregiver" program provides transportation, child care, housekeeping, and grocery and gas cards to about 600 women per year. The Dish and Deliver program provides homemade frozen dinners for the entire family.

Anne Meisner of Natick with her sons, Jeffrey, age 4, and Collin, age 21 months Except all of those involved with the Ellie Fund say the same thing.

"It was easier to ask them for help then to ask people I knew for help," said Anne Meisner, of Natick. "It's hard to keep asking the same people for - gosh - seven months to keep doing things for you."

At 28, Meisner found her lump just three weeks after her second son was born. Up at 2:30 a.m. to feed a hungry baby, she noticed her chest ached. Then, she felt a pea-sized lump in her breast.

Meisner said her medical treatment was speedy, and she had complete faith in her doctors and the treatment they prescribed - a lumpectomy, followed by chemotherapy every other week for 16 weeks, followed by daily radiation for six weeks. But still, she said, she was "definitely overwhelmed."

Meisner suffered fatigue, some nausea and lost her hair. Her oldest son, who was still a toddler, told her she looked scary without her hair.

"That bothered me," she said quietly.

And she knew she needed help with the practical things that she had simply taken care of before she became ill - housekeeping, meals for her family and buying groceries. She didn't know what kind of help to get, so she hit the Internet and found the Ellie Fund and Nations.

"She was very flexible, tailoring things for me," said Meisner, who received grocery cards, help with child care, housecleaning services and ready-made meals for the whole family delivered to her home.

"It was the most fantastic thing to open the freezer and have dinner - a real dinner - sitting there," Meisner said. A count of her medical visits revealed that she went to the doc- tor 82 times last year, and the Ellie Fund helped her through it. "It's just the whole overall experiences of having the dayto day stresses taken away." And that is what the Ellie Fund is all about.

What's Best for Families

Jeff Popkin, along with his brother Eliot, started the Ellie Fund in 1994 in memory of their mother Eleanor Popkin, of Newton. Jeff was 6 when his mother was first diagnosed with cancer and she died of breast cancer when he was 17.

Popkin said mothers are often the caretakers of families, and when they get sick, families need help with "the daily essentials of living and having a family." There was no such help when his mother was sick, and Popkin remembers seeing his parents "worn out, scared."

The Ellie Fund, he said, provides "the exact same things that there is no funding for and that insurance doesn't cover." He and his brother began raising funds for the program by running the Boston Marathon.

And Meisner's experience of feeling that everything was tailored to her isn't unusual.

"Everything we do is based on what's best for families," said Nations. After a woman applies for help, the Ellie Fund creates a program based on that family's needs. For example, if a family needs help caring for the children, the Ellie Fund will pay for the day care bills at the facility they already attend. If the mother is a stay-at-home mom, the Ellie Fund will work with them to find a day-care provider.

"Everything is specialized for every single person we work with," Nations said.

The Ellie Fund also focuses on ensuring those who ask for help maintain their dignity. Grocery cards are provided instead of food stamps. Volunteers work with the family around their schedule, rather than the family trying to fit life in around the help they're offered. The discretion is all aimed at making women feel comfortable accepting what the Ellie Fund has to offer.

"It's awful hard for women to ask for help," Nations said, adding that women want to take care of their families. "I can't tell you how many women call us up crying saying 'I'm so embarrassed I have to ask for help.'"

A Tremendous Lift for Channel 5's Kelley Tuthill

Kelley Tuthill, a reporter on WCVB Channel 5, of Needham, said she was one of those people who asked for help. Diagnosed with breast cancer at 36, when one daughter was 2 and the other 6 weeks old, Tuthill herself went through surgery, chemotherapy and radiation.

Although, Tuthill said she was lucky to have a large support network of family and friends, she needed the Ellie Fund's help when she lost her eyelashes and eyebrows in treatment. She said she was feeling low, and the Ellie Fund helped connect her with a salon on Newbury Street in Boston that created lashes for her.

"It was a tremendous lift," she said.

But Tuthill had been involved with the Ellie Fund before that. Kelley Doyle, a friend who worked in public relations at the Boston Harbor Hotel, and Tuthill's co-worker Susan Warnick, decided to throw a fundraising event in Tuthill's name to benefit charity. Warnick suggested the Ellie Fund, and although Tuthill had heard about the group, she didn't really know what it did. She checked it out.

"Nobody was doing what they do," she said. And after she went through treatment, "I understood how important it was to support women through this grueling year of treatment."

So "Kelley for Ellie" was born. The fundraiser featured a fashion show with the personalities from Channel 5 as models and an auction. This year a second "Kelley for Ellie" was held and Tuthill said she hopes to make it an annual event.

"I know there's a need (for these types of services) because I've been through it," Tuthill said. She remembers the endless treatments, exhaustion and upset to family routine.

"It's like a long boxing match," she said. "You just keep taking the hits."

Fund Feels The Pinch

Nations said the Ellie Fund helps women across the state, with the highest concentration of women asking for help within an hour of major medical centers. She said the program is simple, run by Julie and two part-time patient coordinators. The Ellie Fund contracts out the services women need.

However, with the high cost of fuel, the Ellie Fund is feeling the pinch when it comes to reaching out to more women. The program has had to cut Dish and Deliver from providing 12 meals (at six servings per meal) to six meals. Requests for grocery cards have quadrupled, and the Ellie Fund spends $85,000 per year on food; grocery stores have yet to allow her to buy grocery cards at a discounted rate. And more and more families are asking for gas cards because they can't afford to get to treatment.

Nations said she'd like to see the program spread out to rural areas, but to do that, the organization needs money.

"The only challenge we face is fundraising,"

Donna Roberson is a freelance writer in central Massachusetts. She also works as the arts and entertainment editor for The Telegraph in Nashua, N.H. Her favorite grandmother died of breast cancer when she was 16.

ELLIE FUND SERVICES

The Ellie Fund provides:

• Transportation to and from medical appointments • Gas cards • Grocery cards • Prepared meals • Professional housekeeping • Child care • Pet care For more information on volunteering or donating to the Ellie Fund, visit www.elliefund. org.

ELLIE FUND FACTS

• The Ellie Funs was established in 1994 in memory of Eleanor "Ellie" Popkin, who battled breast cancer for 11 years. • The Ellie Fund is a local nonprofit, providing services to Massachusetts families and based in Needham. • Women who receive help from the Ellie Fund must be medically vetted by their health-care professional. • All services are provided free of charge. • The Ellie Fund does not pay for treatment or raise funds for cancer research. • It is the only organization that provides home services for breast cancer patients. • Approximately 80 cents of every $1 raised goes directly to families. Help is usually available within 72 hours of application. The Care for the Caregiver program application is the last day of every month and decisions are made within the first week of the following month.