- Video shows a local family, data from Kern County Cancer Foundation's study, and breast cancer treatment.
- The Kern County Cancer Foundation conducted a study with San Diego State University to reveal the financial impacts of a breast cancer diagnosis on Latina patients and their families.
The Kern County Cancer Foundation held a community forum on Tuesday to discuss their findings on the financial impacts a cancer diagnosis has on Latina breast cancer patients.
It's a financial burden one local family knows all too well.
Sitting in a doctors office, Alejandra Magdaleno waits for test results in a moment forever ingrained in her memory.
“It was my mom, my beloved mom, my mami, she has cancer,” Magdaleno said.
It was a diagnosis no one wishes to hear let alone translate, but that’s exactly what Magdaleno had to do for her mother Maria -- because there weren’t any nurses at the office that spoke Spanish.
“I was just looking for ways to break it down to her so it wasn’t as harsh as it was for me,” Magdaleno remembers.
That heavy emotional toll was coupled with a new financial burden on a farmworker's family.
“Since my mom already has two or three appointments this week, that means that my dad because he works in the fields," she said. "He can’t take an extra day off because he would only be getting paid for like two or three days.”
It's a situation faced by many residents in Kern County dealing with a cancer diagnosis.
According to the Kern County Cancer Foundation’s study with San Diego State University, more than 50% of those surveyed earned less than $25,000 a year, meaning not only do Latina breast cancer patients struggle to handle the cost of treatments but of everyday living expenses as well.
“A lot of that had to do with food insecurity and transportation issues and utilities and rent and just things that normally would be a part of normal life," Michelle Avila, the executive director of the Kern County Cancer Foundation said.
The Kern County Cancer Foundation offers up to $51,000 in support for out-of-pocket expenses and deductibles, and the organization says it hopes to eventually be able to extend aid to address living expenses.
Magdaleno tells me her mom is doing well.
“Every single day we talk for hours, so making memories, especially when someone has cancer, every single day counts,” she explained.
Magdaleno wants to see more resources to aid Latino cancer patients and ease the burden on caretakers.
“Hispanics, you know, we’re always know for being very resilient, and I think that even though we are, maybe that shouldn’t be the case.”
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