Mission

We provide education, emotional support, and financial assistance for women in Western North Carolina with breast or gynecologic cancer who are experiencing economic difficulties due to treatment costs.

The Hope Chest for Women was founded in 2003 as a grass-roots, community-funded organization to relieve some of the burden created by the cost of breast or gynecologic cancer treatment. Since 2003, we have awarded over $200,000.00 in assistance to an estimated 1000 women in Western North Carolina.

We support women living in all 22 counties of WNC. Most patients we serve are living in Appalachia and having to travel to Buncombe County for medical care. These women have financial difficulties due to the cost of cancer treatment. Referrals from 43 medical providers have increased the demand for our assistance. The number of women served and programs we offer each year vary based on funding.

We rely heavily on our board of directors, volunteers and part time staff to support our programs. We have a strong level of support from the local community. Community volunteers host a variety of fundraisers to benefit us throughout the year. We have over 200 volunteers who are committed to support our mission each year.

We have three primary objectives per year.
1) We provide medical and nonmedical bill pay assistance to women diagnosed with breast or gynecologic cancer. We serve an estimated number of 150 women a year with direct financial assistance. We budget between $30,000.00 and $35,000.00 a year for mini-grants to pay providers on behalf of cancer patients. On average we provide $250-350 in assistance per women a year. Our maximum assistance per patient is $500 a year. We refer patients to local and national support agencies for additional resources.

2) Our goal is to educate an estimated 1500 WNC residents per year on the importance of cancer screening and early detection. We advocate to underinsured women on programs that provide free or reduced cost cancer screening. We attend health fairs, workshops and events to promote cancer awareness and prevention.

3) To provide outreach and support to an estimated 500 cancer patients per year by attending and organize cancer support groups. Our cancer patient referral and program services provide local and national support to women with breast or gynecologic cancer diagnosis. We visit local chemotherapy treatment rooms to comfort and provide emotional and financial assistance to patients in treatment.

Counties in North carolina we serve;

Counties we serve:
Buncombe
Cherokee
Clay
Graham
Haywood
Henderson
Jackson
Macon
Madison
McDowell
Mitchell
Polk
Rutherford
Swain
Transylvania
Yancey
Ashe
Avery
Burke
Caldwell
Cleveland
Watauga