Our Mission

The South Jersey Breast Cancer Coalition was formed in 1997 by a group of survivors concerned with the enormous social, medical and economic consequences of breast cancer.

MISSION STATEMENT:
To advocate for breast cancer awareness through education, action and empower those affected by the disease.

ABOUT THE SOUTH JERSEY BREAST CANCER COALITION:
Through our years of service we have learned that cancer affects everyone: cancer survivors, family, friends and employers. We protect the New Jersey communities we serve by fighting cancer on multiple fronts through advocacy, service, education and providing help and hope to those in need.

EDUCATION AND SERVICES:
New Jersey ranks 8th in the nation for new cases of breast cancer and 3rd for deaths from breast cancer. There are 298,000 men and women living in NJ with breast cancer. We promote breast health awareness throughout New Jersey via our newsletter, “The Survivor”, email alerts, personalized lecture services geared to the public and health care providers as well as committee members on a number of advocacy initiatives. For information about our services, call us at (856) 768-9028, email us at sjbccloretta@verizon.net or visit our contact us page.

ADVOCACY:
SJBCC serves as patient advocates to promote legislation that supports funding of breast cancer research, eliminating health care disparities, reducing barriers to quality health care and empowering the community through action to sustain the changes in health care by providing resources to patients, their families and the public. We have successfully lobbied and implemented the Drive By Mastectomy Law which now requires insurers to pay for a 2-day stay after mastectomy if needed. We also successfully implemented a letter writing campaign mandating public reporting of outcomes of clinical trials. We also supported legislation targeting environmental links to breast cancer as well as genetic nondiscrimination. We were instrumental in the inclusion of no preexisting condition clause as well as removing the $1 million cap for cancer care in the Affordable Health Care Law.

CAROLYN J. OCHS MEMORIAL CLIENT ASSISTANCE FUND:
The fund was established in April 2005 in honor of one of our founding members. Unfortunately, in 2006 Carolyn succumbed to her disease and the name was changed to memorialize her. The fund was started to help people with breast cancer who have a financial need with essential bills (such as rent, mortgage, utilities) associated with or arising from the diagnosis or treatment of breast cancer. Since its inception and as of 11/1/16 we have awarded over $100,000 to persons who have applied for assistance.