Stony Brook Southampton Hospital, other East End groups gets $363G in grants for breast cancer screenings, education

Grants totaling $360,000 have been awarded by the Ellen Hermanson Foundation to fund 2023 breast health cancer programs at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital and five other East End groups.

The grants, announced last week, provide “essential funding” for breast cancer education, screenings and treatment, to "ensure access to quality breast health care,” the foundation's co-founder and board president Julie Ratner said in a statement.

Southampton Hospital will use its grant to fund a licensed clinical social worker to provide group and individual therapy; a new mammography machine; a nurse practitioner to perform community outreach and follow breast cancer patients; an oncology nurse patient navigator; and emergency funds for breast screenings and diagnostic procedures.

The other five recipients and how they will use their grants are:

The Bridgehampton Child Care & Recreational Center to fund a bilingual licensed clinical social worker and outreach worker, and social assistance for breast cancer patients, educational community forums, and projects with the Latina Sistas and the Witness Project of Long Island;

Organización Latino Americana (OLA) of Eastern Long Island to fund bilingual outreach and social assistance for breast cancer patients;

The Retreat to fund bilingual outreach and social assistance for breast cancer patients;

The Shinnecock Health Center to fund its Pink Shawl Program, which provides outreach and social assistance for breast health care, and transportation for patients;

Judges and Lawyers Breast Cancer Alert to underwrite its annual Ellen Hermanson Memorial Symposium.

The foundation's Ratner said “no one” is turned away from the Ellen Hermanson Breast Center, the only facility of its kind on the East End, for lack of insurance or the inability to pay for screenings or treatment.

 In an email Friday, Minerva Perez, OLA's executive director, said with the grant OLA is "better equipped to connect our community members to cancer screenings, transportation, preventive care, diagnostic support. … OLA’s Latino and bilingual focus allows us to deepen our community’s connection to our region’s cancer support systems in a way that is culturally and linguistically needed." 

 The grants are administered in partnership with the Southampton Hospital Foundation, in coordination with the Phillips Family Cancer Center.

The foundation is in its 28th year and recently announced three new board members — Melissa Cohn, James Levin and Thuyen Nguyen — to ensure its already strong connection to East End communities.

By John Valenti

john.valenti@newsday.com

John Valenti, a reporter at Newsday since 1981, has been honored nationally by the Associated Press and Society of the Silurians for investigative, enterprise and breaking news reporting, as well as column writing, and is the author of “Swee'pea,” a book about former New York playground basketball star Lloyd Daniels. Valenti is featured in the Emmy Award-winning ESPN 30-for-30 film “Big Shot.”