Placer County Group's Decade Of Fundraising Means More Breast Cancer Research At UC Davis
PLACER COUNTY (CBS13) — UC Davis health is recruiting a new physician to churn out groundbreaking breast cancer research, thanks to a group of survivors who worked for nearly a decade to come up with the funding.
Each one has her own personal war story, but Laura Tyrrell, Cindy Pico, and Carol Garcia have worked for years to turn their rough journeys into something positive.
"When I was going in, during all that I thought, you know when I feel better, I want to really start doing something to find a cure for breast cancer," Garcia said.
So Garcia co-founded the Placer Breast Cancer Endowment in 2005 with a lofty goal of raising $1.5 million for UC Davis' Comprehensive Cancer Center. Picos and Tyrrell eventually joined as board members.
"This was something that wasn't just going to help a little bit here and a little bit there," Tyrrell said. "This was something that was really going to make a difference in a big way."
The group held countless fundraisers over the years, gathering a bunch of those big checks. And last year, after nine years, they finally hit that goal.
"We all were just stunned and it was like: pinching each other. did we really do this?" Garcia said.
The money goes into an endowment at UC Davis, meaning the principal doesn't get touched. But with the interest it gains, UC Davis can hire a physician whose sole purpose will be to research breast cancer.
"The challenge will really be through a lot of research and clinical trials and figuring out how patients should be best treated," said Dr. Helen Chew.
Chew and Dr. Richard Bold say the endowment will give the physician freedom to research what he or she wants rather than being tied to grant funding demands like many other researchers.
"It's kind of high risk, high reward. It's how we make the big, big jumps in cancer treatment advances," Bold said.
The group is basking in its success, but there's a bittersweet ending. One of the group's board members, Jenny Beard, lived to see the goal reached, but died in March after her second round with breast cancer.
"Jenny was just such an inspiration to all of us," Garcia said. "She always had a positive spirit about her."
"If you would have just approached her on the streets, you would have never known what she was going through," Picos said.
Tyrrell has pushed through chemo and surgeries to remain a board member as she's treated for breast cancer.
"This is the only thing that helps my cancer to make sense," she said. "It just doesn't make sense otherwise."
She's hoping great things are discovered at UC Davis so her daughter and granddaughter don't ever hear the diagnosis that changed her life.