Pat Halpin-Murphy’s determination to expand fundraising options for her crusade to raise money for breast cancer research paid off.
Gov. Tom Wolf on Friday signed into law a bill that allows motorists to make voluntary donations to the Pennsylvania Breast Cancer Coalition whenever they renew their vehicle registration or identification card electronically.
Each time, they get an opportunity to make a $5 donation to the organization much like they can do already in donating to the Veterans’ Trust Fund, pediatric cancer research and the Keystone Tree Restricted Account.
“We are so grateful to everyone in the Pennsylvania Legislature on a bipartisan basis because all of the senators and state representatives voted unanimously to move us forward in breast cancer research in the state to find our further treatment, and ultimately a cure,” said Halpin-Murphy, a breast cancer survivor who founded the coalition in 1993.
According to statistics from her coalition, cancer is found in 37 women every day in Pennsylvania, totaling over 13,000 per year.
The breast cancer checkoff legislation, sponsored by Sen. Bob Mensch, R-Montgomery County, in April took just two months to gain bipartisan support in both houses of the General Assembly to pass unanimously.
Speaking about his decades-long collaboration with the breast cancer coalition and its continuing impact in the commonwealth, Mensch told PennLive, “Here’s a chance for the everyday citizen to [contribute] $5 once a year. If we had a couple of million people in Pennsylvania do that, we’d have substantial dollars for cancer research.”
According to the bill, the organization will decide how much money they hope to raise for the year, and the total amount will be reported to the state treasurer.
There are several state lawmakers who have been personally affected by the diagnosis of breast cancer, one being Sen. Kim Ward, R-Westmoreland, who learned of her Stage I diagnosis just two weeks after being elected as the first female majority leader in the history of the commonwealth. Though Ward’s experience is firsthand, other lawmakers have experienced the traumatic effects of a breast cancer diagnosis involving family members.
After having personally experienced the impact of a breast cancer diagnosis after losing a loved one, Mensch continues to collaborate with the breast cancer coalition to aid women battling it every day.
“Whether it’s breast cancer [or any of the cancers], I believe they can be defeated with the appropriate amount of research and funding so we have a great opportunity here in Pennsylvania,” Mensch said.
Mensch has championed other bills that became law to help in the detection of breast cancer. They include a law requiring insurance companies to provide coverage of ultrasound or magnetic resonance imaging for women at increased risk of breast cancer and another that requires breast density findings to be included when women receive their mammography results.
The breast cancer coalition works toward a goal of finding a cure for cancer through actively fundraising to provide grants for cancer research. To date, it has awarded over $4.3 million in funds for cancer research in Pennsylvania and spent 1,500 hours on patient advocacy.
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