September 13, 2025 • 21 mins
For cancer patients, a diagnosis can not only be scary and overwhelming, it can also be financially devastating. One out of every three cancer patients finds themselves struggling to meet basic financial needs as they're going through treatment, yet another blow for people who are already suffering a traumatic event. Family Reach, a Boston-based non-profit, steps in to help patients stay afloat financially by connecting them to critical resources. CEO Carla Tardif joins Nichole on this week's episode to talk about their mission and the importance of their work.
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
From WBZ News Radio in Boston. This is New England
Weekend where each and every week right here we come
together we talk about all the topics important to you
and the place where you live. It's great to have
you back with us this weekend. I'm Nicole Davis. When
you hear the words you have cancer, it can be scary, devastating, overwhelming.
Among the worries about your health and survival, there are
(00:30):
so many other factors to be concerned about. Children and jobs,
mental health, your partner, insurance, just to name a few.
Another major factor, though, is paying the bills. One out
of every three cancer patients finds themselves struggling to meet
basic financial needs as they go through treatment. It radiation, surgery, chemo, immunotherapy,
you name it. It's just another blow for people already
(00:53):
going through a traumatic event. But that is where family
Reach comes in. They are ready and waiting to help
patients before things get untenable, to make sure those everyday
needs are met. CEO Carla Tartiff is here. Carla, it's
great to have you with us. Share with us if
you could more about family Reach. I know you're based
in Boston, but you've grown quite a bit over the years.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Family Reach has been around for thirty years. Next year
is our thirtieth anniversary, and our sole focus is basic
needs for cancer patients. We step in with financial interventions
around housing, food, transportation, and utilities. When cancer strikes a family,
(01:34):
often work is interrupted or stopped, and so is the income.
But with cancer care, out of pocket expenses are out
of this skyrocket accessing care, getting to the hospital, parking
meals outside the home, and then of course there is
the cost of care, so that on top of income
(01:56):
being disrupted, families hit critical breaking points and have to
make heartbreaking decisions.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
I would imagine that right now, with the cost of
living being so high and just life being overly expensive,
at this point in healthcare, it's a struggle to get
health care in many cases, I would imagine that people
are reaching out to you more than ever these days.
Is that the case?
Speaker 2 (02:18):
That is the case? It's you know, it's a part
of cancer that people don't talk about or even think about.
The focus is on cancer, the focus is on getting better,
and sort of unbeknownst to them or surprisingly, they're saying,
wait a second. Once they're in it, wait a second,
how am I going to do this, and then the
(02:40):
struggle is getting patients and caregivers to speak up because
there is so much fear and so much shame in
talking about your finances, especially when you have cancer. So
our goal is to normalize the conversation and to say
this is what cancer does. We understand this, and you
(03:00):
did nothing wrong. Again. Income is cut out of pocket, expenses,
the cost of care. As you said, basic needs are
getting more and more expensive. It's math, and it simply
doesn't add up.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
No, not in the least. And how many people are
you helping each year? Now?
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Jimmy Reach helps about forty thousand patients a year, wow,
and we have set our sights on reaching about two
hundred and fifty thousand per year within the next two
to three years. We've really unlocked a hub that is
going to allow us to share ways where patients can
(03:41):
self navigate to local resources. And then the goal is
to really educate patients and healthcare providers early on, so
they talk about their finances early and we can catch
them before they hit financial breaking points.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
That's great that you're able to find a way to
help people get over that. The hurdle, I suppose you
could say of shame and of frustration. And you know,
it's not even just the finances. I think that a
lot of people don't want to accept or want to
admit that they need the help. It's just kind of
the society that we're brought up in. And I'm really
grateful that you're there to be essentially the middleman to
(04:18):
help people connect with other resources that are out there
willing to help them, but they just may not know
where to go per se.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
You're so right. People are afraid to ask for help
or don't want to be a burden, and there is
help out there, and that's the hard part. There are programs,
there are utility hardship programs, there are food banks, there
are food pantries, there's food delivery programs. There are resources
that exist, but until patients or people people get cancer,
(04:49):
people with jobs, people with families, people with busy lives.
Nobody plans for cancer. So when people get cancer, they
are again they're focused on the cancer. But there are
so many resources there, and if we can catch them early,
I call that our four to one one. If we
can educate you on how to talk about finances, if
(05:10):
we can show you where to look for resources that
are sitting right there for you. That's the four to
one one we can help you avoid needing the nine
one one and the nine one one is patients that
come to us after they've been evicted. I missed so
many rent payments. I just came home from treatment and
there's a notice on my door I can't get in.
(05:30):
Or I've been in the office late at night where
the phone rings and I pick it up and someone
who's screaming on the other end of the line. There's
a REPO guy in the driveway. He's taking my car.
I'm behind in my car payments. He's taking my car.
I can't get the treatment tomorrow. So this isn't just
a nice to have. This needs to be thought of
as part of the treatment. If a patient does not
(05:50):
have basic needs, if they don't have a roof over
their head, if they don't have a car in the driveway,
if they can't put food on the table, the cancer
takes a back seat. We have to look at patients
as people and understand that their basic needs have to
be met before they can prioritize cancer care.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
Now you this is very personal. I feel for you
because you're a member of the cancer Moonshot. You're a
patient advocate and you're also a cancer survivor yourself, so you,
I'm assuming, no first hand a lot of these heavy emotions,
and frankly, I'm sure the fear and the panic about
what am I going to do? How am I going
to handle this?
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Yeah, but I only had one battle. Cancer is scary enough,
and I was lucky enough that I didn't have to
worry about how was I going to feed my children
and how is it going to keep a boof over
our heads. I only had one battle and that was
getting on the other side of cancer. And what we
hear our patients say so often is, honestly, Carla, it's
(06:47):
not the cancer that scares me. There's that we are
surrounded by incredible health care institutions. They know what they're doing,
They're taking care of the cancer. It's all this other
stuff that scares me more.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
Well, talk about what you're doing to raise this much
needed money to get these people the help that they need.
And I think a really really fun event actually that
you've got coming up here in a couple of weeks.
You've got a concert with Mountain Joy, and this is
a band that is getting super hot right now, people
are talking about them all over the place. Tell me
a little bit about I know they're coming to the garden,
(07:22):
but tell me about how you're involved in their visit.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
Yeah, mount Joy, How lucky are we even the name
mile Mountjoy? Yeah, and it's so important. I love the
way you just tee that up. We're doing some fun things.
This conversation, this topic, it's heavy. It's hard so to
get people to want to talk about it, or to
(07:45):
even just be willing to listen and to I always
say people, thanks for having the courage to hear what
I have to say, because I know it can be hard.
But I also know we can fix this. I also
know I see it every day. I've been the CEO
for seventeen years at Family Reach. I know these financial
interventions work. I know we just need to reach more people.
(08:06):
So getting a band like Mountjoy to say, hey, we
get this. Mountjoy is really focused on food insecurities. At
a lot of their shows, they have food drives and
they invite people to They partner up with a local
food bank and they ask their fans to bring food
that will stay in that community. That's just that's the
(08:28):
band they are. This is the human beings they are.
So when I met them through a board member and
my dear friend, Chef Ming Psai, he met the band
and told them about Family Reach and they said, wait
a second, food insecurity is a really big deal for us.
Can you tell us about food insecurity and cancer? And
that's when we were able to shed light on the
(08:49):
fact that a malnutrition body cannot handle toxic chemotherapy treatments,
and so many families are foregoing food to pay or
to put gas in the car to get to treatment,
or to pay for medication. So we really were able
to link something they were so interested in and focus
it hone it in on cancer. So they said, we're
(09:12):
in Boston TD Garden on September twentieth. I think there
might be a few tickets left, but I'm not sure
about that. We're going to stay extra day and we're
going to do a private show for Family Reach. We
want to tell people about this. We want to wipe
out the shame. We want get people to understand that
this is part of cancer. And they have this wonderful
young adult audience. They have an audience that really cares
(09:37):
about other people, really cares about giving back, and really
cares about how authentic Mountjoy is, so we're excited to
raise awareness with this audience about how this could affect them,
but also how they can affect others who have cancer.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Yeah, that really resonated with me just now how you
were talking about how the band didn't even realize the connection.
This band and who is clearly very active socially in
dealing with food and security, they had no idea about
this extra connection. And I think that when you bring
a lot of young people into a room, you're so right.
How you know, younger millennials and Gen Z they just
(10:14):
want to help, and the ripples from that could be huge.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
I think you're right. I hope you're right. I think
even when you think about cancer and the young adult population,
that is a really vulnerable population. Many of them just
starting out in their careers. They don't have a big
nest egg. Many of them are putting off going to
the doctors. You don't have a parent nagging you to
go to the doctors anymore. You don't have to go
get a physical before entering the school year. You're out
(10:40):
on your own. And for a lot of young adults
who are diagnosed with cancer, it's late stage because it
has been either ignored or put off because they couldn't
miss work or don't have health insurance or whatever the
reason is. So I'm also I'm excited about Monjoy for
a million reasons. But another one is I love the
audience and to even be able to say that this
(11:03):
young adult audience don't put off your health care.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
Another big event that you've got coming up, This one
is going to be tasty, and people might be wondering tasty,
what are you talking about? This is a cancer conversation. No,
we are talking about cooking live. This is happening October
six at the Boston Harbor Hotel. This is such an
interesting event to me. You mentioned Ming Ssai a few
minutes ago. How did this all come together, this big event?
Speaker 2 (11:28):
Yeah, so we're still on this food insecurity right. So
I having SI Fifteen years ago, I was speaking at
a golf tournament that of a Golf Fights Cancers organization.
It just made a big donation to Family Reach. Early on,
when I was a team of one, it was just
me out there trying to move this boulder up the hill.
And I met Ming and he said what do you do?
(11:50):
And I talked about we help with housing, transportation. You know.
I was just and he said, what about food? Cancer
patient needs food? So he instantly got it. I have
to confess to you, Nicole, I did not know who
Mingsai was when he came up to talk to me.
I didn't know who he was. He called me on
it too, by the way he called me on it,
He said, you don't know who I am? And I said,
(12:10):
who says that? And then about two weeks later but
we exchanged cards, And about two weeks later, I was
visiting one of our patients in that we had helped
in the hospital. We had helped this family pay their rent.
They were about to be evicted. They were a few
months behind on their rent. So family stepped in and
got them current on their rent. And Darlene was had
(12:31):
OSTEO sarcoma. She was a double amputee and the cancer
had spread everywhere and she was at the end of
her life. And so I literally got in the car.
I went to see Darlene and I said, we got
to celebrate your life. What do you want to do?
And she said, I just want to meet ming si Hm.
I was like, are you kidding me? I just met
that guy? I didn't know he was a thing, but
(12:52):
he told me he was. And now here you are
telling me you want to meeting. Say so, that's how
I met Ming, and that's how I saw the power
and the pack of Ming Si. So Ming said, bring
the whole family in. So we brought Darlene, her sister, brother,
parents went into Blue Ginger when it was open as
a time and Ming just cooked his heart out for
this family and he sat with us and he ate
(13:14):
and he told her how everything was cooked. It was
pure magic. And she passed away a couple of weeks later.
But the family has said that it is a day
and that is a moment they will never forget. Nor
did a day or a moment Mingsai ever forgot. So
at that moment, Ming ended up joining my board of directors,
making this his passion, his mission, and he created this
(13:35):
event called Cooking Live, which is he talks about how
chefs give back all the time, but he did something different.
So he has four of his close chef friends. It's
often different chefs every year, and we are we bring
people together. Each chef cooks a meal they does It's
like you're in a cooking show. Each chef does a
(13:57):
demo of a course with a fabulous wine and then
it is served to the guests and it's very interactive.
It is very fun, and we often have a celebrity
soux chef that's in there cooking with Ming. If they
can't cook, it's even better because Ming makes fun of them.
So this year we have Matt Damon, who this is
(14:19):
the second time he's did. He did this for us
in New York back in twenty twelve. Meing and I
have done this event together for fourteen years and Ming
raises about a million dollars a year. This year the
event will raise about a million and a half. But
it really focuses on this cause and it brings people
(14:40):
together to have fun. We call it get minged. You
eat too much, you drink too much, you laugh too much,
it's too much the best possible way, so we come together,
we get Minged and raise more awareness and a lot
of money to help more patients.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
I love this Boston guy, Matt Damon comes back and
he's going to be a big hit, I'm sure. And
something else that's really standing out to me here is
that this kind of surprises me that this is the
first time you all have a lead sponsor for this,
and this is a really big sponsor that's going to
probably make a huge difference. I'm sure Bank of America
is helping out with that.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Bank of America. Bank of America stepping in as our
title sponsor, as you say to really, I'm so excited
about this for many reasons. One is their generosity. Two
is we are People think of us as a cancer org.
We help cancer patients, but the reality is we're not
treating cancer patients. We're not curing cancer, we don't do
(15:36):
cancer research. We're actually a financial organization. We offer financial
interventions basic needs to cancer patients. So to have Bank
of America, a financial institution, care so much about this
side of cancer and this reality of cancer that, by
the way, effect dramatically affects people's chance of survival. We
(16:00):
have a financial company, Bank of America is stepping in
as a lead sponsor for our highest profile, glitziest event
is game changing for us and I am beyond grateful.
And Brian Morninghan, the actual CEO of Bank of America,
is planning on being there, so this really stays to us.
THEAY care deeply about this and they are going to
have a dramatic impact.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
Wow, having so many high profile supporters there. You've got
Bank of America, like you said, Brian's going to be there,
Matt Damon ming Sai. I mean, what does this mean
to you after seventeen years in the CEO scene, after
first taking over as CEO, what does this mean to
you to have so many high profile people giving a
(16:42):
family giving your organization. Just the big boost that it's
getting right now from all this, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
It's that it's made all the difference in the world
for the like you said, seventeen years. Up until a
few years ago, I would explain what we do and
people would just kind of say, what do you talking about,
Like don't they have insurance? They do have insurance, but
does insurance pay your rent? Is insurance paying for your groceries?
You know they do have insurance, but there's this whole
(17:09):
side you haven't thought about. Or they'd say, didn't the
hospital take care of that? No, the hospital's focused on
the cancer. So having these high profile names who people
listen to, people listen to them, and so for them
validating and exposing this reality of cancer and saying this matters,
I care about it, and you can make a difference
(17:32):
has made all the difference because now people are talking
about social determinants of health and health equity. Now it
is part of the conversation. I'm in Vegas right now
speaking at health conferences. I'm on three different panels today alone,
because people are starting to understand it. It's not a
new problem, but it's a problem that people are actually
(17:54):
starting to understand and are willing to look at, which
is really exciting because now we can get started for sure.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
And look if somebody is listening and they want to help,
but they're not Ming Sai or Matt Damon. You know,
every dollar I'm sure counts. Whenever I speak with people
who are running in nonprofits like yours, I make it
a point to say every dollar counts, even if it
doesn't seem like it will. You over there at Family
Reach can make that dollar count way more than I
(18:25):
think many of us could. So tell us about how
people can donate, how they can help, and you know,
just a reminder of where we can find you.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
Yeah, thank you so much for that. Go to Familyreach
dot org. Okay, we do have a and you'll see
all the things that we're doing, because there might be
many ways for you to get involved. But we do
have a monthly reoccurring gift program. It could be as
little as five dollars a month. Like you said, small amounts,
but we have a big community joining this monthly reoccurring
(18:57):
gift program. So that is turning into a ground swell
that is helping us really grow and really meet more
needs of more cancer patient. So I love the way
you said that the smallest amount. It might be small
to you, but it comes in. It's joining with others
who doing small amounts and it is turning into a
(19:21):
really impactful way for us to make a difference. I
just ran the Falmouth road Race, so if you're a runner,
we do road races. Check out our website. You'll see
what we have going on. We love to find ways
to bring people in to the community. We do have
a lot of fun. We have a lot of fun.
It's hard, but we have a lot of fun. So
small donations getting involved, there's many opportunities.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
And if somebody is listening here locally in New England,
but they know somebody around the country who might be
able to access your resources, it's a reminder that I
think I want to get out there. This is not
just for the Boston area. You are a nationwide organization.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
Correct, that is correct. We partner with fifteen hundred hospitals
and care centers across the country. They're oncology. Social workers
know about family Reach. So if you know somebody across
the country that has cancer and is dealing with this,
they can either ask their social worker in the hospital
if they know about Family Reach, or they can go
(20:22):
to the website directly and click get Help, and then
they're in our financial resource center and they can really
see what local You can type in your zip code,
you can say I need housing, any food. You can
see all the resources that are in your area. You
can even sign up to talk to one of our
navigators if you need help. So, yes, we do not
(20:43):
have any geographical boundaries.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
Well, Carla, this has been such a great conversation. Really
appreciate all you're doing for people who are frankly in
one of the most difficult times of their life. But
it's nice to know, in fact, it's important to know
that you are there for them. Thank you for all
you and it's great to have you on the show.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
Thanks for having me. It's an honor to do this
work and I appreciate you helping us get the word out.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
Have a safe and healthy weekend. Please join us again
next week for another edition of the show. I'm Nicole
Davis from WBZ News Radio on iHeartRadio
From WBZ News Radio in Boston. This is New England
Weekend where each and every week right here we come
together we talk about all the topics important to you
and the place where you live. It's great to have
you back with us this weekend. I'm Nicole Davis. When
you hear the words you have cancer, it can be scary, devastating, overwhelming.
Among the worries about your health and survival, there are
(00:30):
so many other factors to be concerned about. Children and jobs,
mental health, your partner, insurance, just to name a few.
Another major factor, though, is paying the bills. One out
of every three cancer patients finds themselves struggling to meet
basic financial needs as they go through treatment. It radiation, surgery, chemo, immunotherapy,
you name it. It's just another blow for people already
(00:53):
going through a traumatic event. But that is where family
Reach comes in. They are ready and waiting to help
patients before things get untenable, to make sure those everyday
needs are met. CEO Carla Tartiff is here. Carla, it's
great to have you with us. Share with us if
you could more about family Reach. I know you're based
in Boston, but you've grown quite a bit over the years.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Family Reach has been around for thirty years. Next year
is our thirtieth anniversary, and our sole focus is basic
needs for cancer patients. We step in with financial interventions
around housing, food, transportation, and utilities. When cancer strikes a family,
(01:34):
often work is interrupted or stopped, and so is the income.
But with cancer care, out of pocket expenses are out
of this skyrocket accessing care, getting to the hospital, parking
meals outside the home, and then of course there is
the cost of care, so that on top of income
(01:56):
being disrupted, families hit critical breaking points and have to
make heartbreaking decisions.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
I would imagine that right now, with the cost of
living being so high and just life being overly expensive,
at this point in healthcare, it's a struggle to get
health care in many cases, I would imagine that people
are reaching out to you more than ever these days.
Is that the case?
Speaker 2 (02:18):
That is the case? It's you know, it's a part
of cancer that people don't talk about or even think about.
The focus is on cancer, the focus is on getting better,
and sort of unbeknownst to them or surprisingly, they're saying,
wait a second. Once they're in it, wait a second,
how am I going to do this, and then the
(02:40):
struggle is getting patients and caregivers to speak up because
there is so much fear and so much shame in
talking about your finances, especially when you have cancer. So
our goal is to normalize the conversation and to say
this is what cancer does. We understand this, and you
(03:00):
did nothing wrong. Again. Income is cut out of pocket, expenses,
the cost of care. As you said, basic needs are
getting more and more expensive. It's math, and it simply
doesn't add up.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
No, not in the least. And how many people are
you helping each year? Now?
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Jimmy Reach helps about forty thousand patients a year, wow,
and we have set our sights on reaching about two
hundred and fifty thousand per year within the next two
to three years. We've really unlocked a hub that is
going to allow us to share ways where patients can
(03:41):
self navigate to local resources. And then the goal is
to really educate patients and healthcare providers early on, so
they talk about their finances early and we can catch
them before they hit financial breaking points.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
That's great that you're able to find a way to
help people get over that. The hurdle, I suppose you
could say of shame and of frustration. And you know,
it's not even just the finances. I think that a
lot of people don't want to accept or want to
admit that they need the help. It's just kind of
the society that we're brought up in. And I'm really
grateful that you're there to be essentially the middleman to
(04:18):
help people connect with other resources that are out there
willing to help them, but they just may not know
where to go per se.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
You're so right. People are afraid to ask for help
or don't want to be a burden, and there is
help out there, and that's the hard part. There are programs,
there are utility hardship programs, there are food banks, there
are food pantries, there's food delivery programs. There are resources
that exist, but until patients or people people get cancer,
(04:49):
people with jobs, people with families, people with busy lives.
Nobody plans for cancer. So when people get cancer, they
are again they're focused on the cancer. But there are
so many resources there, and if we can catch them early,
I call that our four to one one. If we
can educate you on how to talk about finances, if
(05:10):
we can show you where to look for resources that
are sitting right there for you. That's the four to
one one we can help you avoid needing the nine
one one and the nine one one is patients that
come to us after they've been evicted. I missed so
many rent payments. I just came home from treatment and
there's a notice on my door I can't get in.
(05:30):
Or I've been in the office late at night where
the phone rings and I pick it up and someone
who's screaming on the other end of the line. There's
a REPO guy in the driveway. He's taking my car.
I'm behind in my car payments. He's taking my car.
I can't get the treatment tomorrow. So this isn't just
a nice to have. This needs to be thought of
as part of the treatment. If a patient does not
(05:50):
have basic needs, if they don't have a roof over
their head, if they don't have a car in the driveway,
if they can't put food on the table, the cancer
takes a back seat. We have to look at patients
as people and understand that their basic needs have to
be met before they can prioritize cancer care.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
Now you this is very personal. I feel for you
because you're a member of the cancer Moonshot. You're a
patient advocate and you're also a cancer survivor yourself, so you,
I'm assuming, no first hand a lot of these heavy emotions,
and frankly, I'm sure the fear and the panic about
what am I going to do? How am I going
to handle this?
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Yeah, but I only had one battle. Cancer is scary enough,
and I was lucky enough that I didn't have to
worry about how was I going to feed my children
and how is it going to keep a boof over
our heads. I only had one battle and that was
getting on the other side of cancer. And what we
hear our patients say so often is, honestly, Carla, it's
(06:47):
not the cancer that scares me. There's that we are
surrounded by incredible health care institutions. They know what they're doing,
They're taking care of the cancer. It's all this other
stuff that scares me more.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
Well, talk about what you're doing to raise this much
needed money to get these people the help that they need.
And I think a really really fun event actually that
you've got coming up here in a couple of weeks.
You've got a concert with Mountain Joy, and this is
a band that is getting super hot right now, people
are talking about them all over the place. Tell me
a little bit about I know they're coming to the garden,
(07:22):
but tell me about how you're involved in their visit.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
Yeah, mount Joy, How lucky are we even the name
mile Mountjoy? Yeah, and it's so important. I love the
way you just tee that up. We're doing some fun things.
This conversation, this topic, it's heavy. It's hard so to
get people to want to talk about it, or to
(07:45):
even just be willing to listen and to I always
say people, thanks for having the courage to hear what
I have to say, because I know it can be hard.
But I also know we can fix this. I also
know I see it every day. I've been the CEO
for seventeen years at Family Reach. I know these financial
interventions work. I know we just need to reach more people.
(08:06):
So getting a band like Mountjoy to say, hey, we
get this. Mountjoy is really focused on food insecurities. At
a lot of their shows, they have food drives and
they invite people to They partner up with a local
food bank and they ask their fans to bring food
that will stay in that community. That's just that's the
(08:28):
band they are. This is the human beings they are.
So when I met them through a board member and
my dear friend, Chef Ming Psai, he met the band
and told them about Family Reach and they said, wait
a second, food insecurity is a really big deal for us.
Can you tell us about food insecurity and cancer? And
that's when we were able to shed light on the
(08:49):
fact that a malnutrition body cannot handle toxic chemotherapy treatments,
and so many families are foregoing food to pay or
to put gas in the car to get to treatment,
or to pay for medication. So we really were able
to link something they were so interested in and focus
it hone it in on cancer. So they said, we're
(09:12):
in Boston TD Garden on September twentieth. I think there
might be a few tickets left, but I'm not sure
about that. We're going to stay extra day and we're
going to do a private show for Family Reach. We
want to tell people about this. We want to wipe
out the shame. We want get people to understand that
this is part of cancer. And they have this wonderful
young adult audience. They have an audience that really cares
(09:37):
about other people, really cares about giving back, and really
cares about how authentic Mountjoy is, so we're excited to
raise awareness with this audience about how this could affect them,
but also how they can affect others who have cancer.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Yeah, that really resonated with me just now how you
were talking about how the band didn't even realize the connection.
This band and who is clearly very active socially in
dealing with food and security, they had no idea about
this extra connection. And I think that when you bring
a lot of young people into a room, you're so right.
How you know, younger millennials and Gen Z they just
(10:14):
want to help, and the ripples from that could be huge.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
I think you're right. I hope you're right. I think
even when you think about cancer and the young adult population,
that is a really vulnerable population. Many of them just
starting out in their careers. They don't have a big
nest egg. Many of them are putting off going to
the doctors. You don't have a parent nagging you to
go to the doctors anymore. You don't have to go
get a physical before entering the school year. You're out
(10:40):
on your own. And for a lot of young adults
who are diagnosed with cancer, it's late stage because it
has been either ignored or put off because they couldn't
miss work or don't have health insurance or whatever the
reason is. So I'm also I'm excited about Monjoy for
a million reasons. But another one is I love the
audience and to even be able to say that this
(11:03):
young adult audience don't put off your health care.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
Another big event that you've got coming up, This one
is going to be tasty, and people might be wondering tasty,
what are you talking about? This is a cancer conversation. No,
we are talking about cooking live. This is happening October
six at the Boston Harbor Hotel. This is such an
interesting event to me. You mentioned Ming Ssai a few
minutes ago. How did this all come together, this big event?
Speaker 2 (11:28):
Yeah, so we're still on this food insecurity right. So
I having SI Fifteen years ago, I was speaking at
a golf tournament that of a Golf Fights Cancers organization.
It just made a big donation to Family Reach. Early on,
when I was a team of one, it was just
me out there trying to move this boulder up the hill.
And I met Ming and he said what do you do?
(11:50):
And I talked about we help with housing, transportation. You know.
I was just and he said, what about food? Cancer
patient needs food? So he instantly got it. I have
to confess to you, Nicole, I did not know who
Mingsai was when he came up to talk to me.
I didn't know who he was. He called me on
it too, by the way he called me on it,
He said, you don't know who I am? And I said,
(12:10):
who says that? And then about two weeks later but
we exchanged cards, And about two weeks later, I was
visiting one of our patients in that we had helped
in the hospital. We had helped this family pay their rent.
They were about to be evicted. They were a few
months behind on their rent. So family stepped in and
got them current on their rent. And Darlene was had
(12:31):
OSTEO sarcoma. She was a double amputee and the cancer
had spread everywhere and she was at the end of
her life. And so I literally got in the car.
I went to see Darlene and I said, we got
to celebrate your life. What do you want to do?
And she said, I just want to meet ming si Hm.
I was like, are you kidding me? I just met
that guy? I didn't know he was a thing, but
(12:52):
he told me he was. And now here you are
telling me you want to meeting. Say so, that's how
I met Ming, and that's how I saw the power
and the pack of Ming Si. So Ming said, bring
the whole family in. So we brought Darlene, her sister, brother,
parents went into Blue Ginger when it was open as
a time and Ming just cooked his heart out for
this family and he sat with us and he ate
(13:14):
and he told her how everything was cooked. It was
pure magic. And she passed away a couple of weeks later.
But the family has said that it is a day
and that is a moment they will never forget. Nor
did a day or a moment Mingsai ever forgot. So
at that moment, Ming ended up joining my board of directors,
making this his passion, his mission, and he created this
(13:35):
event called Cooking Live, which is he talks about how
chefs give back all the time, but he did something different.
So he has four of his close chef friends. It's
often different chefs every year, and we are we bring
people together. Each chef cooks a meal they does It's
like you're in a cooking show. Each chef does a
(13:57):
demo of a course with a fabulous wine and then
it is served to the guests and it's very interactive.
It is very fun, and we often have a celebrity
soux chef that's in there cooking with Ming. If they
can't cook, it's even better because Ming makes fun of them.
So this year we have Matt Damon, who this is
(14:19):
the second time he's did. He did this for us
in New York back in twenty twelve. Meing and I
have done this event together for fourteen years and Ming
raises about a million dollars a year. This year the
event will raise about a million and a half. But
it really focuses on this cause and it brings people
(14:40):
together to have fun. We call it get minged. You
eat too much, you drink too much, you laugh too much,
it's too much the best possible way, so we come together,
we get Minged and raise more awareness and a lot
of money to help more patients.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
I love this Boston guy, Matt Damon comes back and
he's going to be a big hit, I'm sure. And
something else that's really standing out to me here is
that this kind of surprises me that this is the
first time you all have a lead sponsor for this,
and this is a really big sponsor that's going to
probably make a huge difference. I'm sure Bank of America
is helping out with that.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Bank of America. Bank of America stepping in as our
title sponsor, as you say to really, I'm so excited
about this for many reasons. One is their generosity. Two
is we are People think of us as a cancer org.
We help cancer patients, but the reality is we're not
treating cancer patients. We're not curing cancer, we don't do
(15:36):
cancer research. We're actually a financial organization. We offer financial
interventions basic needs to cancer patients. So to have Bank
of America, a financial institution, care so much about this
side of cancer and this reality of cancer that, by
the way, effect dramatically affects people's chance of survival. We
(16:00):
have a financial company, Bank of America is stepping in
as a lead sponsor for our highest profile, glitziest event
is game changing for us and I am beyond grateful.
And Brian Morninghan, the actual CEO of Bank of America,
is planning on being there, so this really stays to us.
THEAY care deeply about this and they are going to
have a dramatic impact.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
Wow, having so many high profile supporters there. You've got
Bank of America, like you said, Brian's going to be there,
Matt Damon ming Sai. I mean, what does this mean
to you after seventeen years in the CEO scene, after
first taking over as CEO, what does this mean to
you to have so many high profile people giving a
(16:42):
family giving your organization. Just the big boost that it's
getting right now from all this, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
It's that it's made all the difference in the world
for the like you said, seventeen years. Up until a
few years ago, I would explain what we do and
people would just kind of say, what do you talking about,
Like don't they have insurance? They do have insurance, but
does insurance pay your rent? Is insurance paying for your groceries?
You know they do have insurance, but there's this whole
(17:09):
side you haven't thought about. Or they'd say, didn't the
hospital take care of that? No, the hospital's focused on
the cancer. So having these high profile names who people
listen to, people listen to them, and so for them
validating and exposing this reality of cancer and saying this matters,
I care about it, and you can make a difference
(17:32):
has made all the difference because now people are talking
about social determinants of health and health equity. Now it
is part of the conversation. I'm in Vegas right now
speaking at health conferences. I'm on three different panels today alone,
because people are starting to understand it. It's not a
new problem, but it's a problem that people are actually
(17:54):
starting to understand and are willing to look at, which
is really exciting because now we can get started for sure.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
And look if somebody is listening and they want to help,
but they're not Ming Sai or Matt Damon. You know,
every dollar I'm sure counts. Whenever I speak with people
who are running in nonprofits like yours, I make it
a point to say every dollar counts, even if it
doesn't seem like it will. You over there at Family
Reach can make that dollar count way more than I
(18:25):
think many of us could. So tell us about how
people can donate, how they can help, and you know,
just a reminder of where we can find you.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
Yeah, thank you so much for that. Go to Familyreach
dot org. Okay, we do have a and you'll see
all the things that we're doing, because there might be
many ways for you to get involved. But we do
have a monthly reoccurring gift program. It could be as
little as five dollars a month. Like you said, small amounts,
but we have a big community joining this monthly reoccurring
(18:57):
gift program. So that is turning into a ground swell
that is helping us really grow and really meet more
needs of more cancer patient. So I love the way
you said that the smallest amount. It might be small
to you, but it comes in. It's joining with others
who doing small amounts and it is turning into a
(19:21):
really impactful way for us to make a difference. I
just ran the Falmouth road Race, so if you're a runner,
we do road races. Check out our website. You'll see
what we have going on. We love to find ways
to bring people in to the community. We do have
a lot of fun. We have a lot of fun.
It's hard, but we have a lot of fun. So
small donations getting involved, there's many opportunities.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
And if somebody is listening here locally in New England,
but they know somebody around the country who might be
able to access your resources, it's a reminder that I
think I want to get out there. This is not
just for the Boston area. You are a nationwide organization.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
Correct, that is correct. We partner with fifteen hundred hospitals
and care centers across the country. They're oncology. Social workers
know about family Reach. So if you know somebody across
the country that has cancer and is dealing with this,
they can either ask their social worker in the hospital
if they know about Family Reach, or they can go
(20:22):
to the website directly and click get Help, and then
they're in our financial resource center and they can really
see what local You can type in your zip code,
you can say I need housing, any food. You can
see all the resources that are in your area. You
can even sign up to talk to one of our
navigators if you need help. So, yes, we do not
(20:43):
have any geographical boundaries.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
Well, Carla, this has been such a great conversation. Really
appreciate all you're doing for people who are frankly in
one of the most difficult times of their life. But
it's nice to know, in fact, it's important to know
that you are there for them. Thank you for all
you and it's great to have you on the show.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
Thanks for having me. It's an honor to do this
work and I appreciate you helping us get the word out.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
Have a safe and healthy weekend. Please join us again
next week for another edition of the show. I'm Nicole
Davis from WBZ News Radio on iHeartRadio
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