Ever wonder what happens with your contribution to the American Cancer Society?

With your help, we save lives.

The American Cancer Society offers free lodging for those cancer patients that receive treatment far from home. In 2012, $26 million of lodging was provided nationwide to 41,000 patients and caregivers. It is called Hope Lodge, and there are three of them in New England—Boston and Worcester, MA and Burlington, VT. In 2013, 50 Maine patients stayed at the Boston Hope Lodge with a total of 1,285 free nights. Since they did not pay for lodging that is an estimated savings of $272,052, an average of $5,441 per patient. Money raised at Relay For Life helps support Maine families that stay at Hope Lodge.

Cancer resource centers in community hospitals provided state-of-the-art information and referrals to cancer patients and their families. Currently there are five cancer resources centers in Maine (Mid-Coast Hospital, Brunswick; Mercy Hospital, Portland; St. Mary’s Hospital, Lewiston; Harold Alfond Center for Cancer Care, Augusta; and EMMC’s Cancer Care of Maine, Bangor). Money raised at Relay For Life helps support these valuable resource centers in Maine.

Last year, over 45,000 New Englanders dialed the Society’s toll-free number for comprehensive information and services. This cancer hotline is the only one of its type in the world and is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Nationwide, someone calls the American Cancer Society every 30 seconds! In 2012, over 1 million people called 1-800-227-2345 for information and support and 25 million visited the web site at cancer.org. Money raised at Relay For Life helps support this important resource for cancer patients and their loved ones.

Cancer patients with complex needs often struggle to access support services. Hospital-based American Cancer Society Patient Navigators are being deployed in many locations across New England to guide patients to social and emotional support, transportation, and medical and financial assistance services. Maine has two Patient Navigators who served over 1.000 patients in 2013—one is located at Maine Medical Center’s Cancer Institute, and the other at the Harold Alfond Center for Cancer Care in Augusta. Money raised at Relay For Life helps support Maine’s patient navigator program. Since the Patient Navigator program began, nationwide 89,000 patients have been helped by trained patient navigators..

Other services to patients include nationally 16,500 rides to treatment via the Road to Recovery Program, 185 Maine residents were provided 2,963 rides that included six Androscoggin County patients who received 28 round-trip rides in 2013 (there is a great need for volunteers year round for this program). Assistance to patients with the Look Good, Feel Better Program included 23 from Androscoggin County and 261 across Maine. 202 new wigs were provided free of charge for women who have lost their hair to chemotherapy via the Pantene Beautiful Lengths Program of which 34 went to patients in Androscoggin County. Smoking cessation assistance funded by the American Cancer Society has led to a 50% drop in smoking since the 1960s.

The American Cancer Society is the largest private funder of cancer research in the world—since 1946, the Society has invested $3.8 billion in cancer research, including $484 million in grants. In New England institutions alone, the Society is has funded 139 researchers with $60.5 million in grants. A researcher at the Jackson Laboratory just completed a three-year, $720,000 grant to study brain cancer. Maine has the highest incidence rate for brain tumors in the U.S.

Since 1960, the American Cancer Society has given over $3 million in grants to Maine research institutions.

Since 1946, when the Society began funding research, Maine has received more than $9 million in grants.

Society-funded Maine research facilities include Jackson Laboratory, Maine Medical Center, and UMaine Orono.

The American Cancer Society has a history of funding scientists early in their careers. Two ACS funded researchers at the Jackson Laboratory went on later in their careers to received Nobel Prizes.

In addition to ACS grants, the Society’s advocacy efforts have been successful in helping to secure federal cancer research and prevention dollars from NCI (National Cancer Institutes) and CDC (Center for Disease Control) for Maine research facilities. In 2010, the Society helped secure $71.4 million in NIH funding for Maine organizations including: Bowdoin College, Maine Medical Center, UNE, USM, Jackson Laboratory, Mt. Desert Island Biological Lab, UMaine Orono, Bates College, and Collinge & Associates in Kittery.

Money raised at Relay For Life helps fund life-saving research in Maine, New England, and in other states where important research breakthroughs will benefit Maine cancer patients.

From another perspective, if your community could not afford to donate to the American Cancer Society, the programs and services would still be there because the Society is committed on a local, state, and nationwide basis to eliminating cancer as a major health concern. Cancer knows no boundaries, so funds are put where the need is greatest: in your neighborhood, at one of Maine’s cancer centers, or perhaps in the lab of a researcher at Yale or MIT who will unlock the mystery of cancer cell replication and save the life of someone you love. Bottom line: The more money you raise, the more likely the Society is able to help make breakthroughs in the fight to end cancer; and that impacts everyone, everywhere.