What Happened Next?

So what happened next? How did a non-profit organization that now awards grants all over the world evolve? After Martha was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1992, she started asking questions about how she might have found her breast cancer earlier. Through talking to specialists in the field, Martha was horrified to learn that breast cancer is usually present in the body 5 to 8 years before it is able to be felt through self-examination or detected on a mammogram. She was also shocked at what little research was being conducted in biological testing for breast cancer.

“With all the money going into cancer research, I couldn’t believe that scientists were not looking for a way to detect breast cancer through a biological test. One researcher told me I had identified a niche that was not being addressed.”
~ Martha Kaley, Founder

It seemed obvious to Martha that there was a large window of opportunity to intercept breast cancer earlier. So, in 1995 with the help of countless friends, the non-profit organization Friends...You Can Count On® became official. The mission: to provide monetary grants to scientists exploring bio-markers that indicate the presence of breast cancer in the body before tumor formation. By offering financial support in the form of a $40,000 seed grant to promising projects, scientists are able to investigate their theories in order to seek further funding.

Early on some of Martha’s friends decided to hold a luncheon in support of breast cancer research and to begin fundraising for the new organization. The luncheon sold out before the invitations were even mailed, so a dinner was added. Since then, the Gathering of Friends has become an annual event each October with 2,000 people attending a lunch and dinner program that has raised as much as $475,000 in one day!

“I asked my friends to jump in with me and they have, over and over.”
~ Martha Kaley, Founder

Those who have come to understand the mission of the FRIENDS organization donate their time, talent and enthusiasm to further FRIENDS' vision. As one researcher asked, “exactly how do you raise the money?” The answer is, just about any way we can with any help we can get. Friends for An Earlier Breast Cancer Test® is extremely fortunate to have made so many friends that support our mission. Our individual donors, Sororities, church groups, sports organizations, and businesses all over the country have conducted independent special events to raise money for FRIENDS over the years. One of Martha’s favorite and most memorable stories to share is the time she received a hand written letter from a little boy and little girl. The letter explained that they had held a bake sale to honor their Grandmother’s 5 year survival and they wanted to give the money to FRIENDS.

What is important to recognize is that since the beginning of FRIENDS in 1995, the organization has worked and focused solely on “earlier detection” of breast cancer as opposed to focusing on a “cure” for breast cancer. The reason for that particular focus is that earlier inception of breast cancer is the critical component for changing the impact of the disease as well as the extended impact on a persons long range health. The opportunity to intercept it at a far earlier point in time would, in most cases, change the impact that this disease would have on a person’s life and significantly increases the chances of survival. In 2003, the FRIENDS Board of Directors decided that the organization’s name needed to express the mission more clearly. At the Eighth Annual Gathering of Friends, founder Martha Kaley announced that Friends...You Can Count On® had been renamed Friends for an Earlier Breast Cancer Test®.

Many non-profit organizations have multiple offices, staff and multi-levelinternal organizations. Friends for an Earlier Breast Cancer Test® has only one office, located in Greensboro, North Carolina, with one full time and two part time staff members. The objective of the organization is to direct as many funds as possible as quickly as possible to the research. When FRIENDS achieves its clearly defined mission to fund research leading to successful earlier detection, FRIENDS can willingly and thankfully close its doors.

“This is a project, not an ongoing organization. A bio-marker will be found and a test to detect breast cancer in its earliest stages will be created. No generation has ever had the opportunity that is ours for making an mpact of this magnitude on breast cancer. Technology and research are making large individual advances. Now these disciplines as well as others are bringing their advances together to produce levels of change that are unprecedented. It is our responsibility to recognize, accept, and act on this gift of our lifetime. For this generation and those that follow it is an opportunity that we cannot refuse.”
~ Martha Kaley, Founder

To date, FRIENDS has granted over $2.6 million to seventy institutions, researchers, and doctors throughout the world.