Christina Applegate Launches Breast Cancer Charity

Actress Christina Applegate is set to launch her own cancer charity that will help women who can't afford proper preventative care. Right Action For Women will offer programs to help give financial aid to high-risk women who cant afford to get MRIs. An MRI is one of the breast cancer screening tests recommended by the American Cancer Society for women at increased risk for breast cancer.

Unfortunately, many women are not undergoing genetic testing or having breast cancer screening tests because of financial burden or insurance limitations.

Applegate, a cancer survivor herself, gained an appreciation for the tremendous expenses associated with breast cancer screening and treatment during one of her many doctors visits.

"It's unfortunate that insurance companies (in America) don't cover the cost of that. It's such an incredible device because you can find it at an early detection stage. We started our pilot programme and started helping women already, even though we aren't launched.

"The other aspect of the programme is to do genetic counselling and help women understand what being high-risk means, and understanding what foods are good for their bloods and how to prevent this disease from happening. That has been my mission."

Learn more about how Right Action For Women can help you or support the organization by making a charitable donation.

Comments

[Terry Kaye]

08:35 PM on 08/03/2010

This is a wonderful thing and I wish her all the success in the world. I lost my mother to cancer and know the devastation this disease can cause.

I actually started a small nonprofit in honor of my mom and my best friend's mother (who also died of cancer) to try and help women with cancer get treatment when their health insurance delays or denies it. A delay in treatment caused the complication that took my mother's life.

I wish I had the kind of resources that Christina does, but I am truly starting from the ground up. The good news - my organization, the Saralee and Carol Foundation, is up for a $50,000 grant from the Pepsi Refresh program. We need votes to win the money - and this could get us off the ground and make our first grants to women in desperate need of treatment.

Please vote for us at http://refresheverything.com/cancerhope

[CarolinaYankee]

01:32 PM on 07/30/2010

She is a real sweetie. Heard she is expecting

[WTFbush]

04:47 AM on 07/29/2010

Christina Applegate is a very intelligent woman and has my respect. I wish her the best of success with this endeavor. It is such a joy to see people using thier fame for positive projects that will benefit man/woman kind.

A class act all the way.

[jackiefox12]

09:01 AM on 07/28/2010

I can vouch for how expensive MRIs for high-risk women are. Mine was $4,000 a couple of years ago. I was lucky; my insurance paid for it. But even with insurance, make sure you follow the rules. My insurer enforced a 10-day waiting period. My first oncology consult didn't seem to know or care about this and scheduled something less than a week out; luckily the doctor wasn't a good fit so I decided to get another opinion and canceled the MRI. When my second consult also recommended an MRI, his office told me about the waiting period.
Ms. Applegate, God bless you for doing this. You are going to help so many women.
Jackie Fox
Author, "From Zero to Mastectomy: What I Learned And You Need to Know About Stage 0 Breast Cancer"
http://secondbasedispatch.com

[rougebaisers]

05:47 AM on 07/28/2010

J'aime et que j'admire votre courage et la beauté de Christina.

[WTFbush]

04:50 AM on 07/29/2010

Pardon, I do not speak French. However, it reads like beautiful music and I am certain that I would agree. :-)

[Seaniebhoy]

04:21 PM on 07/27/2010

Good on her and hopefully it will help. My wife's mum died when she was a little one and since then she fears she will endure the same fate, the closer they come to eradicating disease the better but with our insurace companies making profits on treatments rather than cures I doubt it will ever happen in this country.

[Woody Brown]

04:16 AM on 07/27/2010

This woman is one of my personal heros.

[rougebaisers]

05:48 AM on 07/28/2010

Indeed.

[1other1]

10:47 PM on 07/26/2010

The best!

[klucker]

06:17 PM on 07/26/2010

Kudos to Ms. Applegate.

[LMPE]

04:15 PM on 07/26/2010

You go, Christina!