Our small staff at the AiRS Foundation is always soliciting donations from individuals who understand the impact of breast cancer on a woman’s life. We don’t necessarily enjoy asking for money, but it’s a critical step in our mission to provide every woman who’s undergone a mastectomy due to breast cancer the opportunity to reconstruct her breasts. In all seriousness, without donations from individual donors, we wouldn’t be able to provide the personalized, medical assistance that distinguishes AiRS, and many women whose confidence and sense of self have been shattered would not receive the surgery that could make them whole again.
That’s why we ask for donations: to help these women in need.
So, why donate to the AiRS Foundation?
For one thing, AiRS is one of the few organizations around that helps breast cancer survivors. There are a number of excellent organizations that help women battling cancer cover medical costs, find support groups, and learn more about their diagnosis, but there are few, if any, other organizations that help women who’ve survived breast cancer.
But because breast cancer targets a critical aspect of a woman’s identity — her breasts — a full healing requires not simply eradicating the cancer, but also restoring her body and, by extension, her self-confidence, as well. That’s where we help. Our staff and patient advocates walk our grant recipients through every stage of the breast reconstruction process, emotionally and physically, until they feel whole again.
Where the money goes
Your donation goes directly toward helping survivors of breast cancer. Breast reconstruction is expensive, sometimes costing tens of thousands of dollars, and many women cannot afford to pay such a high price. We offer grants that cover the cost of reconstruction. In other words: your donation directly impacts the life of a woman who feels helpless to change her situation. Our staff can’t count the number of times a woman who previously thought all options for reconstruction were unavailable to her has called us crying, overwhelmed with thanks for the grant she received thanks to individual donations.
A portion of your donations also go toward educating other medical professionals and society as a whole about the importance of breast reconstruction for cancer survivors. Many medical professionals simply do not think about the impact of a mastectomy on a woman because they’ve never been there. We educate them about the damaging effect of mastectomies on a woman’s ego, as well as the options available to women who would like reconstruction.
How you can help
We’re not kidding when we say your donation counts. We rely on small donations to fund our grants for breast cancer. If you or a loved one has experienced the effects of cancer, or if you simply want to give back, we hope you’ll consider making a donation to the AiRS Foundation. Every dollar — even just one dollar — makes an enormous impact!
