Pink W. A. Y. works to aid women with breast cancerDate: 1/24/2022 LUDLOW – To help women financially struggling during their breast cancer treatment, the Pink W. A. Y. (Women Around You) Foundation raises money through a variety of events, including its upcoming Valentine’s Day Legends Sweetheart Show.
Robyn Hersey, the founder of the Pink W. A. Y. Foundation, said the foundation raises money to help women going through breast cancer treatment pay their bills but not to raise money for research.
“The Pink W. A. Y. Foundation has been around for 12 years. We are a nonprofit and we are raising money to help women that are going through breast cancer. So, we help them financially, we do not raise any money for hospitals or doctors or anything like that. If somebody needs help with copays or they may need help with an electric bill, we help with that,” she said.
Hersey said she decided to help women struggling to make payments during breast cancer treatments because of her own experience.
“I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2001 and my breast cancer was so aggressive I ended up being out of work for 18 months. After one year being out of work, the company I worked for no longer could or would carry me on their health insurance. I had six months left of care before I could go to work again fully, because of that I had to find a way to pay for my care, so I had to sell my house and that was a hardship,” she said.
Despite having to sell her home, Hersey said she was eventually able to buy her house back.
“What goes around comes around because that house I sold I now own again so it has a nice feel-good ending to it. Once I got myself to work and on track, because my fiancé lives in the same neighborhood I noticed the house was empty so I inquired with the woman who bought it from me and she said she was going to get married and was not sure what she was going to do with the house, so I offered her a rent with option to buy, and now own the house again,” she said.
After her experience, Hersey said she wanted to make sure other women did not have to sacrifice as much as she did during her treatment.
“I had to sell my house, finish my care, got myself back up and running and decided that I was going to try to help women as much as I possibly could so they would not have to sell their house when they are going through breast cancer treatment,” she said. “The Pink W. A. Y. Foundation is just trying to build and hopefully help people, so they do not have to sell their house, be hungry or go without electricity.”
Hersey said all the foundation’s fundraising events go into raising money for the women in need.
“One hundred percent of everything we do goes directly toward the foundation. Every year for 12 years we have hosted a benefit over at the Lusitano Club, and the last year before COVID[-19] we had over 400 people at our benefit and we usually end up with about 100 or more raffle prizes, and generally, we are able to generate about $30,000 through that between donations and the raffle,” she said.
In order to rebuild some of the funds spent during 2020, Hersey said she is trying to come up with more events.
“We had enough money that got us through the first year of COVID and then last year we were lucky enough to be able to do a run at the end of August, we still had our event in October and now we are doing this year. Where we would only have one event per year before COVID we would generate a bit of money whereas this year we did not get as much, so I am trying to build the account back up by having these little things,” she said.
Despite a down year in 2020, Hersey said the foundation was able to help over 30 women financially.
“We were fortunate enough that we had raised enough money prior to COVID that we helped a lot of women through COVID. We are talking about 30, 40 people in the one year we were down, and we were able to send money, help with funds and pay electric bills or stuff like that, it means a lot,” she said.
Hersey said the foundation’s latest event, a Valentine’s Day Legends Sweetheart Show at Ludlow’s Lusitano Club, will be a fun Valentine’s event for couples.
“People can expect a really good time. The six entertainers are all phenomenal, we have Rick Larrimore who does Rod Stewart, a gentleman from Rhode Island, Robert Black does Elvis and Johnny Cash. Then we have a young lady by the name of Nicole Fuller who is going to do Lady Gaga, then we have a gentleman that is going to do Neil Diamond. And then Joe Pereira and the girl he works with will do their segment called ‘It Takes Two,’” she said.
Along with the performances, Hersey said people will be offered appetizers and desserts.
Hersey said she had to delay the event from its original date of Feb. 13 to Feb. 20 to avoid a conflict with the Super Bowl.
Despite uncertainties with COVID-19, Hersey said she hopes people come out to the event because the need to help people with breast cancer has grown even more.
“I am truly hoping that people come out and they will support. I realize there is weird timing with COVID but wear your mask and come because breast cancer is not stopping because of COVID. The need is probably even more because of COVID, people are out longer because if they are diagnosed with breast cancer it is hard to run back into a job after treatment because your immune system is down,” she said. “I think the need is even more during COVID.”
To purchases tickets, Hersey said anyone can reach out to her at 218-2414, Sonya Murray at 218-0406 or Carmina Fernandes at 949-3868 or can find more information at the Pink W. A. Y. Foundation’s Facebook page.
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