In July of 2011, the CBC released an article regarding the spending habits of the Canadian Cancer Society wanting to know why the Society spend more of it's donated funds on fund raising and administration than on researching a cure. CBC's Marketplace analyzed the Canadian Cancer Society’s financial reports dating back a dozen years. It discovered that each year, as the society raised more dollars, the proportion of money it spent on research dropped dramatically — from 40.3 per cent in 2000 to under 22 per cent in 2011.
Marketplace asked the Canadian Cancer Society for an on-camera interview, but it declined, instead responding by email:
"While funding cancer research is a crucial part of the society’s work, we also have profound responsibilities to do everything we can to reduce the risk of Canadians ever developing cancer and to provide meaningful support to people living with cancer."
But when Marketplace scrutinized the financial reports, it found that a greater percentage of funds was not being directed toward support, information and advocacy.
Instead, the reports reveal that the area that’s getting the greatest portion of donor dollars is fund raising, up from 26 per cent of all monies raised in 2000, to 42.7 per cent in 2011.
There are many who have been sounding the alarm for years about these questionable practises but few Canadians seem interested in knowing that their donations are not being directed where they thought. And Breast Cancer fund raising seems to be under even more scrutiny as the facts about this financial CASH COW becomes more the focus of research and investigation.
From a CBC news article...
"Research on some of the deadliest cancers in Canada is under-funded relative to their toll in lives taken, according to a new report.
Charity Intelligence Canada, an Ontario-based non-profit that analyzes charities, released its report, Cancer in Canada, on Tuesday, to highlight four cancers it says most desperately need donor support:
- Pancreatic.
- Stomach.
- Lung.
- Colorectal.
The four cancers have low five-year survival rates that collectively represent 46 per cent of potential years of life lost to cancer in Canada, the group said. Yet together these four cancers receive only 15 per cent of cancer-specific research funding and 1.6 per cent of cancer-specific charity funding.
In contrast, breast cancer's 89 per cent five-year survival rate is a success story built on a survivor network to mobilize funds, drive improvements in screening to diagnose the disease at early, more treatable stages, and lobby for more effective treatments.
"Breast cancer receives three times the average of the other nine top killers: more than $10,000 per breast cancer death," the report's authors said.
"With 45 charities focused on breast cancer and high support from general cancer charities -- and the resulting high survival rates -- breast cancer has a low funding need relative to other cancers," it said.
Charity Intelligence believes people should think strategically about their donations, aiming to transform these often terminal cancers into something that can be prevented or lived with as a chronic condition."
This information, although known by many for several years, should be an "EYE OPENER" for Canadians who continue to fund these charities. As well, Canadians should be very cautious when corporations get in on the ACTION of fund raising for breast cancer. Many companies are making tens of millions of dollars per year by aligning themselves with breast cancer awareness. Companies are in business to make money! It is not any more complicated than that. And many companies are selling "PINK" products that have nothing to do with cancer awareness and have ingredients in these products which may even be linked to cancer.
And if anyone has been following the news lately, the Susan B Komen foundation has come under fire for removing funding to the Planned Parenthood organization. It did so because of the multitude of investigations into this organization regarding their practises and methods. But after an outcry from the feminist movement, the funding was restored. My question is ..Why is a breast cancer fund raising organization giving some of the money raised for breast cancer research and awareness to an organization that funds abortions?? Perhaps it is time for the average Canadian to stop blindly following the status quo and start asking some questions of the cancer society as well as other charities fund raising for cancer.
And at the risk of being insensitive, I have to ask another question..How does a person die from Breast Cancer? We need many parts of our body to stay alive but are breasts one of those body parts we need to live? Yes it does appear insensitive on my part, but then again, the question is still out there. Of course we need our vital organs to live. That is why they are called VITAL ORGANS. But how does one die from Breast Cancer.
In 2011, I self published a book of poetry titled, What Comes And Goes. I dedicated the book to my sister who died from cancer and any profits earned go to the cancer society (for any and all cancer research). I'm told she died of breast cancer. But she was originally diagnosed with stomach cancer. It spread. It spread so much that eventually her body died. Should we not say she died from stomach cancer? Should we not say she died from cancer ( whatever name that is) that attacked the parts of her body that she needed to live? Why label it as breast cancer? The answer is obvious....To keep that financial train of breast cancer funding racing full steam ahead.
What is it going to take before people start paying attention to where their donations go? What will it take before people open their eyes and start asking questions that a grade 5 student would automatically ask? Why do we say and do nothing when we see fraud and corruption? And more than that, why do we keep sending in the $$$$$$ without asking any questions?? And what does that say about our society when we knowingly allow registered charities to prey on the sadness of family members who have lost loved ones? What does it say about us when we collectively look the other way when we know that funds are being misused and that people are dying because of it?
It is another ugly truth that describes everyone of us. And perhaps that is why we look the other way. The mirror is intended to show our true reflection. Yet we only use it to make ourselves up as we want to be seen and as we want to see ourselves....
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