BTTF Patient Stories

Ms. Tung is 51 years old and moved to the US from Taiwan 16 years ago. She does not have any family history of breast cancer, but Ms. Tung goes to yearly checkups and regularly conducts self-exams. When Ms. Tung was diagnosed with breast cancer, panic set in because she knew she could not afford the treatment. Ms. Tung was immediately referred to the BTTF program at Bellevue. She said she felt incredible relief when BTTF's program coordinator at the hospital, Maria Rosel, told her that BTTF would cover the cost of her treatment. Ms. Tung began treatment within a month of diagnosis. Ms. Tung plans to continue working throughout the treatment process.
Ms. Tung's advice to women: "Be careful as you never know what can happen to you. And please do regular check ups, no matter what age you are."

Tara Sellers is 27 years old and lives in Brooklyn, New York in the Fort Greene neighborhood. She works a free-lance personal chef. Tara found a lump in her left breast during a self-exam. Since her mother, aunt and two cousins were previously diagnosed with breast cancer, Tara made an appointment to be checked immediately. When Tara was diagnosed with the disease as well, she was enrolled in the BTTF program. Tara is receiving surgery at Bellevue Hospital and treatment in partnership with The Ralph Lauren Center for Cancer Care.

Margarita Cesar is a 69 year old female who lives with her adult daughter, son-in-law and one year old grandchild. Her children work and she often left home with the grandchild daily. She has a history of breast cancer in the family with her sister being a 25 year survivor and her maternal aunt dying from the disease. She remembers the pain and suffering both family members endured in the Philippines with the cancer and carried that fear with her all her life. As a result, her fear precluded her from ever getting a mammogram.

One day last year, she told a friend that she has discovered a lump in her breast while in the shower. A few months later, she decided to have the lump examined in the ER. It was there that she was told she had breast cancer and needed a mastectomy.

Margarita has now received surgery and chemotherapy through the BTTF program.

Yekaterina Gilinskaya is a 40 year old woman diagnosed with Breast Cancer in 2000. She has undergone a mastectomy, reconstruction, radiation and chemotherapy treatment.

She has presently recurred and is undergoing a clinical trial which involves a bone marrow transplant. The transplant will place her in isolation for a minimum of 3 months.

Unfortunately, this type of surgery requires a move from her home in Brooklyn, NY to Minnesota. She has left her husband behind and has traveled with her 2 sons, age 15 and 8 to this state. They rented an apartment and her niece from the former Yugoslavia was kind enough to stay with her children while she is in isolation. Her elder son is the donor and will also require hospitalization.

Ester Dendeng is a 37 year-old female diagnosed with breast cancer. She is the mother of a 7 year-old son named Risky, which she explains by saying "like the movie Risky Business."

She is jovial and always smiling. Her husband works construction and since it is the winter there is hardly any work in NY. As a result, he is forced to go to Philadelphia to work in a factory. He stays there all week and comes home to be with his family on the weekends.

Esther is home alone most of the time. She received her first chemo treatment last week. Presently, she is forced to enroll her son in the after school programs because she is so fatigued.