Sue Weldon - CEO and Founder of Unite for HER

This week on the podcast I am honored to have as my guest Sue Weldon, founder of Unite For HER, a non-profit dedicated to providing need based supplementary services to people undergoing treatment for breast and ovarian cancers. 

During her own treatments for cancer, Sue personally learned the benefits of alternative therapies such as acupuncture, yoga, massage and nutrition in complementing traditional medical treatments. As she became more aware of how many others were unable to afford these services (they are not typically covered by insurance) to help them, both physically and emotionally after cancer diagnosis, she became passionate about creating an organization to provide them for as many people as possible.

To learn more about Sue and her amazing foundation visit the website:
https://uniteforher.org/  and please consider donating to this worthwhile cause. 

Please like and subscribe here and also visit my links page to see all of the other places we can connect https://www.joyfulicity.com/links

Transcript

Laura Wakefield: 0:09

Welcome to the joy Felicity podcast. I'm your host, Laura Wakefield. And I'm pleased to have as my guest today, Sue Walden. Sue is the CEO and founder of unite for her a nonprofit organization with a mission to empower and restore those that are battling breast and ovarian cancers.

Sue Weldon: 0:28

Thank you so much for being on the show today. So I appreciate it very much.

Laura Wakefield: 0:32

Now, you're most welcome. So tell me what led you to found unite for her I know you have a personal backstory. So if you wouldn't mind sharing that I would love it.

Sue Weldon: 0:42

Yeah. So, you know, I was diagnosed at a young age 39 years old diagnosed with breast cancer, and had a tough go, you know, had a tough go. And I dove into a lot of integrative therapies, think a complementary therapy, supportive therapies, therapies like acupuncture, and massage, and yoga and nutrition, all to complement the standard of care and the chemotherapy to try and mitigate those side effects and symptoms, because they were just beating me down, you know, and like all that go through cancer, there comes like a lot of really arduous, you know, side effects from the treatment itself. And these are side effects that linger, you know, years after the treatment may even be done. When I was going through that in 2004, I leaned into these types of therapies, especially the acupuncture in the nutrition and yoga, and what I found was life changing for me, I could not get over the change that occurred in my pain management, in my nausea in my depression, anxiety, you know, emotional and physical changes, that were helping me do better on treatment. But I had to pay for it all out of pocket, I had to pay for it all out of pocket. And, and that was the gap. You know, that was the gap that I saw all those years ago. And, you know, it actually came from eight words I always talk about is, I was at an event at the art museum steps. And it was a young woman out of the corner of my eye. And you know, she was going through breast cancer hair gone. hollows don't tone in the skin and eyes, and I was looking at a mirror, you know, and I was feeling better. I've gotten through, I was about a year out. So of course, I had all these tools, right? I had all these tools that, you know, empowered me to be able to go up to her and say, let me let me share what I learned. And you too could have this experience. And when I shared she cried, you know, she just said Good for you. I could never afford that. I mean, they were the words that like lit a fire under me to create heartbreak. Yeah, and shame on me. Right shame on me that I thought that everybody had access, like they were those eight words that opened up that whole conversation of health equity, and that healthcare is not equal. And you know, and that people don't, you know, have they might be educated in so many different ways. Like, for me, I'm such a creative and I was in sales, I did not know the medical industry. And I did not know the integrative care industry either didn't meet, I'm not educated, I just not my area, and to be able to bring this access and education so that people can wrap their hands and grant grab control again, in a disease they had no control over. That is really what sparked, you know, unite for her being built all those years ago, it was really what I lived, you know, and I just wanted to package it in a way that we could serve one member at a time with these$2,000 for the services and they wouldn't have to make any choice they can get access and education.

Laura Wakefield: 3:42

And primarily you're focusing on the stuff that insurance doesn't cover. It

Sue Weldon: 3:49

is you know, sometimes, you know, check your insurance because sometimes insurance will cover a few acupuncture treatments. It's rare, right? Sometimes insurance gives you some nutrition consults or a gym membership. What we do that is so unique and comprehensive is that we meet them where they are in their neighborhood in their community. And we give them $2,000 worth of therapies or treatments are services that they get to pick and choose. So like for example, our nutrition program is not just sitting down and having a conversation like you and I, that's step one, right after they have that we send six weeks of vegetables to their home for six weeks. So they have access to that food, especially when we're in underserved areas where there are food deserts that becomes life changing for them. It's a basic need, you know, we end up doing giving them access to counseling sessions. Sometimes counseling is covered but you have to go at a certain time or back in the hospital and you know, they don't want to go back to that hospital place. They want to have it in their community or they do it like this. You know telehealth is really, this whole virtual setting has opened Stop and really broke down barriers that used to exist, where people were, were really hesitant to go to counseling. But when they can do it in the comfort of their home, right in their car, pick up their phone and do a FaceTime. And

Laura Wakefield: 5:14

they're going through treatments and feel says you don't know for sure or go somewhere. Yeah,

Sue Weldon: 5:20

yeah. And so that's that's that gap that we bridge, we will either mail everything to their home have one on one consultations like this, in the Philadelphia area, we do do an in person, nationwide, it is all done either virtually digital, we have digital series today, we just did ask the experts on mammogram and testing and diagnostic and what's in the future. Right and, and it's a lot to manage. So we're that hub, that resource for all of these complementary services that align and help the standard of care actually do better help that patient do better. So, so yeah, it really has become a model that we want to see everyone be able to adapt at one point because it just the outcomes are tremendous, the science and the data is there.

Laura Wakefield: 6:10

Absolutely. And that's why it's surprising to me that insurances haven't gotten on board. They're on board with more traditional methods of care, but not with the things that are going to support the whole person throughout the process. And it's so much more than just fighting the cancer cells themselves. It's

Sue Weldon: 6:30

like, when you're going through this, your entire body mind spirit is affected. Yeah. And if and emotionally, you know, emotional distress, nurtured the other stuffs not going to work as well. Yeah, yeah, emotional, you know, stress leads to physical symptoms. There's, there's a lot of data around that. And, you know, our we have incredible hospital and insurance partners unite for her does, you know, and they work in collaboration with us, so they might not have it. Like, for example, independence is a partner of ours Blue Cross, and they invest in the unit for her program differently, that might them maybe what they do for their insurance, you know, different coverage plans, but they are investing in US are starting to see that they understand that comprehensive approach. So we're hoping that it's going to be soon, you know, sometimes you'll see Medicare has access to 12 acupuncture treatments in a year, you just have to check your insurance. It's, it's fewer than then you know, that we would hope. But it's a start and the more conversations that we have, and the more that they can see that it affects the bottom line of not going back to er not having, you know, to stop treatment or being able to adhere to treatment so that you can do better on your therapies. All of that gets taken into consideration when they work with you night for her. That's amazing.

Laura Wakefield: 7:55

So I saw on your website massage, along with acupuncture, what does that do to enhance the treatment? In what way? Is that beneficial for someone? Yeah,

Sue Weldon: 8:06

well, let me sort of talk about the whole passport because we give our community choice, right? So on that passport, they get to choose acupuncture, oncology, massage, Reiki, yoga, nutrition, counseling, fitness, it's not a one size fits all like we know that not everybody's going to fit into that one lane. I did acupuncture, life changing for me. But I know that for other people, it might be nutrition and fitness that helped them with sleep deprivation and bone pain and, you know, maybe their emotional well being just movement in general, like just walking and movement is such a good outlet for our community. That's why we give choice. So you know, yes, the acupuncture there's so much science behind it hot flashes, bone pain, neuropathy, headaches, right? So depression, anxiety, all things I used to for. I mean, it ended up taking my hot flashes from 21 a day down to nine a day. Now all of a sudden, I can sleep. Right? And when I'm sleeping, I'm healing. That's powerful. Oncology massage, it's very important that when a cancer patient goes and gets treated by a massage therapist, that they are trained in oncology, massage therapy, it is different. There are a lot of different factors that they need to work on. They have to look at Port site, they have to look at lymphedema, they have to understand where you know, the surgery was what side it was on. deeper tissue massages are not good for our cancer patients. So there is a different level of touch that they would get. So that is very valuable. All of our massage therapists are all vetted through the s four Oh M the society society for oncology massage, that they get credential so they know that how to work with patients that are getting cancer treatments. So if that loved one meaningfully gives you this massage to go out and treat yourself on college do massages act really treating symptoms and side effects is very different. There's a goal at the end, it's not just a spa day, right? Right. Nutrition is another, you know, food is truly your medicine and, and that's empowering. And when we're when we're going to underserved communities, we find that they're using the passport offer food. And it makes sense because, you know, they're having a tough time meeting their basic needs and food insecurity is an issue and Food deserts are an issue. So when they see a passport that says you can get six weeks of fresh vegetables into your home, and then you can renew it again and again and again. Or you can get$75 gift cards to the supermarket. And, and coupled with that nutrition, consult with registered dietitians that are speaking their language, right, we have a woman that is Latina, we have a woman in the black community, we make sure that we are reflecting that community that we're serving, that gives trust that breaks down barriers, that gives, you know, actual resources that $75 is helping them bridge the gap. So they get to pick and choose not one is better than the other. Because it has to be a style of a lifestyle change that they can do more ever, right? Like we don't want it to be just a short lived. We want it to be something that makes them feel that they have control confidence, and that they can self advocate for themselves and feels good, brings joy. Right?

Laura Wakefield: 11:25

Well, and if you have been living in an underserved community, you probably are not used to self advocating. No, life hasn't been easy to win. Well, it's hard to do have that skill. So having an organization like yours,

Sue Weldon: 11:42

for you to control for that skill is so important. And it's not just us, like the nonprofit organizations we talk about this so much is that we can't do it alone. We need our wellness partners, we need our medical partners, we need our pharma partners, we need our nonprofit partners all together working together in a collaborative approach. You know, for us, when we're going into underserved communities, we know we have to link arms with our communities of color, we know we have I am I am here, reaching out to that black community touch BBCA Black Health Matters el Congreso. Right, we know that we have to get to those that are right there in the culture, because they have the trust, when they bring us in when someone like the black Breast Cancer Alliance brings in unite for her. And their leader isn't a white woman that helps the trust and that, you know, transparency where they can have that trust, because it's not always the case, right? Like there's there's been a lot of distrust and a lot of the communities. So we know we work together and collaboratively where everyone is getting access. And that's the ultimate goal. You know, and when we work and we have different nonprofit partners, that we can say, hey, we have 50 seats, we call it so that members can come into our program just for your community, just for this community here that are like, for example, Gilead grant that we got, were in black women with triple negative breast cancer or metastatic disease, right? We knew that if we're invested in, then we can go and find those communities, forge relationships and partnerships, and then deliver the services and the programming that we've been doing for 14 years. That is where that whole control and access and that's where it all happens, right. But look how many people I talked about, we have this collaborative approach. A lot of people have impact, right or intent, I'm sorry, a lot of people have intent to actually bridge health equity gaps. A lot of people have that same mindset, they want to do something about it. But they don't always have the impact. That's where collaboratively we have the impact. We've been doing the programming for 14 years, we know how to do it like the back of our hands. We're a well oiled machine. We know how to bet the providers, we had the trust, we are the gold standard. Together. Now we have impact and intent all working together. And that's where these organizations and companies that will never have the trust of the patient the way that nonprofit partners do. They can gain that trust by linking arms with us and helping us move the needle and investing in the programming very similar to what Gilead did. I feel like they they are like the gold standard? They did such a beautiful job he felt so invested in.

Laura Wakefield: 14:29

Are the providers that are working for you volunteering their time, or they're not. So I was wondering about that. How do you find them? Or how do they find you?

Sue Weldon: 14:38

Yeah, well think about that. Let's talk about that for a little bit too. Because, you know, we have over 5300 members that we treat a year. I couldn't imagine they have to make a living. Can you imagine if these you know, massage therapists, yoga professionals, nutritionists were all pro bono. They would not get the same quality of care number one, they would probably be like, Oh, it's a new unit for her patient. That's Putting on my calendar for today. So we found it very important to pay their rate we pay their rate. You know, we are collaborative. Yes. Do we want them to give back? Sure. You know, when we have our events, we want them to come to our events, we want them and invest in us the same way we invest in them. But our bottom line is that member, that patient that's getting treatment, we want to make sure they have the best experience. So we are absolutely paying them their rate for acupuncture, counseling, massage therapy, yoga, you know, virtual or in person, we pay their rate. You know, registered dieticians are on staff at four on staff. Right, remarkable Team Nutrition is probably our best most used therapy out of all of it. But for it's very important that those providers have the support and the and are paid well. So that then they are you know, they are treating our community when you have over 5000 members that are looking for these types of services. You want to make sure that they're getting the best the gold standard in their care. Yeah. Yeah. So that was one part of the question. What was the other one? I'm sorry? Just how they

Laura Wakefield: 16:07

found you like, how do you Yeah, so

Sue Weldon: 16:10

people that are watching. Thank you for the reminder. So we have advisors in every different modality, every integrative care service. So for example, in acupuncture, Dr. Tom Burgoon, leads that acupuncture team and Dr. Margaret Stroz, they go out and vet our providers for us so much so that we have well over 50 acupuncturists, you know in the Philadelphia, New Jersey Delaware area, the same for massage therapy, we have advisors, they take that role as a volunteer, they do volunteer for us in that advisory role. And they get back to us, they're leaders in the industry, and they're looking to get back. That is key. We have advisors in a well, our nutrition team, you know, our director of culinary nutrition, Aaron Pelegrin, is incredible resource, really remarkable at leading her team of four registered dietitians. We have advisors in Reiki in yoga. So that's how we then find all of the other providers that roll up under them, and we vet them and they have to be credentialed. We have a wellness program manager that credentials all of our providers so that we know that they're certified, they're licensed, they have the unit for her philosophy, and they are accepted as a provider for unit for her. Once they're on our list. You can see it on the website. We are members can use them, we pay their bill directly.

Laura Wakefield: 17:32

That's amazing. How does How do you select who receives these grants,

Sue Weldon: 17:38

we actually served over 5300 last year, and we are looking to serve another 5300. This year, however, we did have over 500 on a waitlist, just like you said, and it breaks our heart, you know, so our team actually collectively got together and formed a third program. It's called our empowered Living Program. Because there are a lot of resources that we give, in addition to this beautiful care box that they receive, you know, right in the mail that's like their springboard into the program, they get this incredible care box with all of these resources about $200 worth inside the box. Right? Then they get a passport. That's our passport program, the Empowered living program does not have the passport. They have access, though, to our Registered Dietitian team through cooking webinars, 48 of them a year, they have access to the SEO experts, the Speaker Series, the virtual Hangouts that we do three times a month, they have access to this virtual and education community, that is incredibly powerful, probably$800 worth of services or, or types of, you know, events that we hold for them. The fact that we can control that internally on staff, that is how we can then make sure whoever comes to unite for her will be in one of our programs. And this is just new for us. Because we did have to figure it out, our demand is getting great. People know we're here they want to invest in us, the more people that can invest in us, we can give the passport to, right? Right. But it doesn't mean that the investment, like we have other ways of investing in us that we can do the Empowered living program that isn't as expensive as that$2,000 of passport offerings that allow us to bring in hundreds 1000s into that empowered Living Program with costs that we can manage internally. So so we're in this, you know, sweet spot, we're still learning, I don't want to say we have, you know, I don't know full come to a point where we have to turn people away from the Empower Living Program. Hopefully we are good there. Some of them received the box because they're within 18 months, right? Getting a diagnosis. If you're over 18 months, you just get into the program. So I guess there could be a huge influx of maybe people who would get the box and we'd have to maybe wait, but so far we're feeling very cool. Often and that you will be able to get into one of our three programs when you work with unite for her, either the past

Laura Wakefield: 20:05

limiting, which is go to your website and and apply. You

Sue Weldon: 20:09

got it? Yep. So they would go to the website and they apply, unite for.org/apply. And then our wellness team, we end up seeing what program they would sit in. Gotcha. And we do have criteria, you know, just like Gilead had a grant for us 550 women of color that are triple negative or living with metastatic disease or women of color, we had all three categories. So we knew that we had funding for that group wouldn't have to turn anyone away, right? Well, we have funding for our Latino population, we have funding for our underserved population, we have a lot of people investing in certain populations with restrictive funding. Okay, so we do have our wellness team that looks at the people who come in, and then we look at, you know, where they're coming from, are they underserved? Are they one of our restricted grants, are we at our capacity or not? On right now, we're in the beginning of our fists halfway into our fiscal so we're doing well. And then we decide what program they get into. We also have one more program, which is an extended passport program, and that's for our metastatic community. And for those living with metastatic breast cancer, we made a promise to them that the stage for breast cancer, they will always have treatment, that will never leave their side, they will renew their passport of services every six months for as long as they need. That has been incredibly powerful. Right, the data behind us being so connected to that community, helps them do significantly better with their outcomes. And we have a lot of data about, you know, those that group of individuals that we're treating, we actually did a poster at San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium on 139, metastatic women, and the outcomes were incredible. And to see that data, that 94% were able to hear to treatment 20% were able to eliminate one or more prescribed medication 80% could reduce, right, had reduced side effects and symptoms, like that data that speaks volumes radical, that speaks volumes, so people can actually see that on our website at you know, pro.org/sa BCS, and all that matters, right? Because that's how we present then to other organizations that say, when you invest in us, we can show you data, because we survey them, we pay their bills, we, you know, we know what our communities using, that's very unique. And you know, for her that we have such a close hands on type of programming for them.

Laura Wakefield: 22:34

I feel like part of one of the biggest components of what you're offering people is just some hope and some love because yeah, not only a lot of people not have access to these services, sometimes they have no support at all, you know, like maybe their mother or trying to go through these treatments while also caring for their children and no years now, taking care of them.

Sue Weldon: 22:59

We have, we have so many, they're actually behind me, but I have a filter on. We get so many love notes, you know, written to us by our community. But you're exactly right. Like they tell us, they tell us we pick up the phone, we are talking to our community, they share what is really devastating for them. You know, they have a lot of pride, too. They don't want to tell their doctors that they can't afford to put food on the table. But don't tell us, right? They don't want to tell their doctor that they're having trouble with paying the rent, but they will tell us where we can end up connecting them with other nonprofits, you know, like family reach, we can connect them with, you know, somebody who wants to educate them on clinical trials, and what does that look like? Right? Like that is where you know, for her comes in and we're that, you know, this this hub of resources and an ear listening ear. I mean, we've had, we've had our women we get so many testimonials and I can read off many, many of them. But one that stands out is you know this one woman sauna. She received the night for her program. And she said before she was you know, going back and forth on the bus, single mom and she had to choose between eating that day or taking transportation to chemotherapy. And she would just she would just not eat because she couldn't afford it. She had to choose. But then you know, for hurricane and the box was delivered the care box and then the passport. And then she saw she could actually get food on the passport and now we're supplementing her monthly, you know her monthly bills with this food and the nutrition consultations and presentations and ways that we can help them with GI issues and side effects of mouth sores and it's helped it is such a you You nailed it. It is it is hope it's a voice. It's somebody who listens to them. And if we don't know the answers, we can find it because we have an incredible coalition of other nonprofits that are doing remarkable work as well. that we can just pass them, you know, to the right place. The hospitals, you know, they can't do it the medical community, it's a tough job, you know, they have to, they have to go after that cancer, they're there to kill the cancer. And that is all we want them to do at this point, because we want to cure we want to cure. But if they can bring us in and support us and fund this integrated care, everyone's going to do better, right, everyone's going to do better on treatment, they're going to be able to have the, you know, the data that I shared with you where it adherence to treatment is, is a thing, like abandonment of treatment is a thing. When you don't have access to transportation to food, you don't feel well, you're really struggling with side effects. People stop. And if we're in there, we can help them stay on treatment, and they can do better. Everybody wins in right, our medical community, our farmer community, and then unite for her or nonprofit community. Everyone is involved in investing. Yeah,

Laura Wakefield: 25:57

because the doctors, medicines can't do their job if the person cannot get there

Sue Weldon: 26:02

to receive

Laura Wakefield: 26:02

them. Yeah, it's tough. There's a lot of factors there. That's really heartbreaking for me to hear that because I think I can't imagine I have not ever been diagnosed with cancer. I've had family members and close friends who've had. But I can't say that I understand how that would feel. Yeah, but I can't imagine how devastating that alone would be. Yeah, no, it's the living that diagnosis, and then all of the physical stuff on top of that, yeah, and then add that extra layer on top of that. There needs to, that's,

Sue Weldon: 26:40

I must speak about,

Laura Wakefield: 26:41

Oh, I understand that part of things, you know, of sometimes feeling unsupported, that I can't imagine the layering effect of all of that on somebody's spirit and how they would feel. So what a wonderful gift you're giving people.

Sue Weldon: 26:55

Yeah, put COVID on top of that. Imagine our community during COVID. Like, it was just, it was devastating. They were so isolated as it was and then they get a cancer diagnosis, and no one's even go to chemotherapy with him. So, you know, you know, for her really had to step up and change our whole way that we delivered the program. And it became a very good teacher for us and allowed us to go nationwide and reinvent our model. And the staff and team here is extraordinary. They are creative and not afraid to change. And they're change agents, right? Like, that's what you need, you need people advocating for you that you see a problem ahead of you, let's solve the problem, let's be that change agent, because cancer didn't stop. And because we were able to do that it enabled us to go nationwide, and then serve anywhere in the nation for the model that we created locally, you know, three years ago.

Laura Wakefield: 27:49

That's amazing. So what does somebody like me do? I'm not a provider of any of those kinds of services. I'm not a patient. But when I hear this, of course, it calls out to my heart and yeah, this somebody do that wants to just help.

Sue Weldon: 28:08

Yeah, well, now, you know, right. So that's so good. Now you know about unite for her, and you can lead them to our website, right, you know, for her, him them. Right. And, and for her.org. And it allows people to go to info at unite for her and understand, you know, these types of treatments and therapies are available. Learning how to, you know, share and look for support, sometimes people hold it in, they don't want to share they want to do it on their own. And, and that's the one thing that I feel like I would tell individuals that it's so important to reach out, because there's resources that can help you do better. And there's no reason why anyone has to do it alone, we get it, we know everybody handles it differently. Definitely all acceptable, every way you handle it is acceptable. Just let us be walking by your side. So we can, you know, see how you're handling it and support you in that way that you don't have to do it alone. So now now, you know, right? And we always say with companies to every company usually has some kind of community outreach, right? They they want to give back to their community, but they don't know how. And we've been doing these box builds now that have been extraordinary, and they actually help fund the Empowered Living Program. And that's where employees have a day giving, and they just build boxes, right? They end up, you know, building 500 boxes for us and they pay for the contents of the box. That becomes incredibly powerful for us. So they have this day of service. Then the corporation pays for the contents of our boxes. And we do it all we ship to their site. They have this wonderful day of giving. We ship it back and then that week 150 of those boxes represent a patient and it goes out the door. So that is where companies that are listening or individuals working for companies find out what your company does for their day of giving and consider unite for her. It doesn't have to be during the month of October, right cancer happens all year long. And we work with breast and ovarian cancer. And that's it, you know, that's a good way to give back, your money's going right to those that we're serving. You know, we're very good with our outreach and making sure that we can manage those expenses 87% of every dollar goes right to the community that we serve. That's really good, you know, because it does cost money to raise money. So, you know, I'm proud of that number. But I also understand where numbers can be less than that, because it's a lot of work to raise that funding. So the companies can help us this way, you know, they can invest in us, their employees get to see an incredible organization, and we are nationwide. So it can be anywhere, right. And we will, we will ship all the contents anywhere in the nation, called a box filled, and then we bring them back. But everybody has a way that feels very hands on and empowered.

Laura Wakefield: 30:55

And that's, that's good for people to feel that actual connection to the process.

Sue Weldon: 31:01

Yeah, for sure. Yeah, they feel like they're doing something, right. They're not. They're not just Yeah, signing a check, they're actually doing something as well, right, they get the we get the funding and the actual activity, and it brings it all together.

Laura Wakefield: 31:17

So if a company or a church or some organization wants to participate in something like that, is there a place on the website for them to just sign up for that?

Sue Weldon: 31:26

Yeah, for sure. I think the easiest way we sent tend to send people to our info portal, right, like info at unite for her.org. And then we have our staff member, you know, look at those requests and send them to the right leader in our organization. So I feel like across the board, whether they want to get into the program, whether they want to donate, they want to do a box filled in. So at unite for her.org is the best way to go. And then that's easy to remember, once you get on our website, you absolutely will see different areas where it says we used to get involved. And you can peruse around there and look at all of our data and look at how we're, you know, impacting lives with integrated care and get educated that way. But, yeah, yeah, that's the best way, you know, and I think about, I think about our partners, we can do what we do without them. And, you know, we talked a little bit about the Gilead health towards health equity grant. That's, that's the investment, right? That's the the actual, you know, intent and impact all happening all together collaborating in such an incredible way. And when you have an organization that wants to invest in health equity, and puts a stake in the ground and actually says, We want you to go here, this is a problem. Black women are actually dying at a 42% higher chance than the average white woman with breast cancer, triple negative breast cancer is an issue, especially for the black community.

Laura Wakefield: 32:52

When do you help us right? Of Death? That's,

Sue Weldon: 32:56

yeah, yeah. And can you help us bridge those gaps? And we're going to invest in you to do that. And can you bring your programming to this community? Right. And that's where, you know, the impact happens. And that's where the investment pays off. So yeah, it's been such a good experience to work with like minded organizations that that really put their words into action in a way that's meaningful, and they understand the collaborative approach and you know, how we can actually fulfill that, you know, that need bridging that gap?

Laura Wakefield: 33:34

Well, if I understood you right, earlier on, you

Sue Weldon: 33:36

find providers through within those same communities as well, correct. So totally does all kinds of, yeah, squarely on there with understanding and support. And yeah, we hired a Latino registered dietician, but not to somebody who speaks Spanish, she's actually from the culture, you know, and native to the language like that. That's important. People want to feel seen and heard, you know that and that's a lot to say, because, you know, with registered dieticians, only 3% are represented by women of color, we feel very fortunate that we have or two registered dietitians that are women of color that are able to support that community in a way that I can't, you know, or a white dietitian couldn't and that that's important for us to represent the community that we want to serve it it speaks volumes to the commitment. And it's also important for us to have counselors that our counselors and professionals of color and acupuncturists and fitness and yoga, and we had to work hard at that we had to look inside and figure out where our gaps are, and find those providers not just expect them to come to us, we have to find them. That's the investment. And that's what you know, organizations help us do, you know, when they invest in us in a way that helps us bridge those gaps where there are such, you know, huge health disparities.

Laura Wakefield: 34:59

Well, and you As the gaps in the providership is a whole other layer of the same problem. Just that, and I love that you're

Sue Weldon: 35:08

reaching out to kind of expose that also that that the general public doesn't really understand that like that number 42%. higher rate of death. That's a staggering number. It is a staggering number you guys, and you can get a lot of incredible statistics. There's an organization I talked about touch that black Breast Cancer Alliance, remarkable organization and just educate yourself, you know, get on that website and look at the data, you know, and young and young black women being diagnosed at twice the rate and dying at three times the rate if they're under 35. Right. There's a lot of different factors there, you know, some of those factors are is that black women are not represented in clinical trials. Yeah, that's the problem. That's a crisis. How are we supposed to help that community if we're not actually the test and the drugs and the chemo therapies that we use, we're not tested on black bodies, like, like, we need to get more clinical trials out there. And there's a whole movement to make sure that more and more people are trusting and involves getting involved in clinical trials. There's a variety of reasons why, you know, there's this health disparity. But we want to move towards that collectively. And Freenet for her our goal is to do the integrative care piece, right link arms with organizations that are doing the clinical trial piece, or, you know, the education piece, talking about it here, you know, and getting that information out. Once you know, you know, right, once you know, now, what are you going to do about it? And exactly, because you can't solve a problem. If you're not even aware it exists. Yeah. Yeah. And when you're aware it exist. Now it's time to do something about it. That's where That's where we come in, and a lot of our partners, their remarkable nonprofit partners in the industry.

Laura Wakefield: 37:00

Yeah, yeah. Because it's 2023. This should not be a conversation we're even needing to have anymore. Yeah, that was the fact that we are there's, it's time to really get this information out there. And I so admire the work that you're doing and Gilead and anyone that is educating the public office. Yeah, I mean, Gilead, you know, they, they didn't just invest in unite for her they invest in in 21, nonprofits for this toward health equity grant, like it was,

Sue Weldon: 37:29

it was an incredible lift, and we appreciate them. We appreciate them. We can't do it without them.

Laura Wakefield: 37:36

That's amazing. That's amazing. Well, I have one more question for you. I just want to see our time real quick. So this podcast at its core, is based on seeking joy and daily living. And a lot of what you're doing with these integrative therapies is trying to make people more comfortable and more at peace during a very difficult time in their lives. What can somebody do that that isn't a caregiver per se, but or that is going through this themselves? Like, when you're in the midst of such a difficult life? Where can you turn? What can you do to try to find some measure of peace and joy throughout that experience?

Sue Weldon: 38:24

Yeah, yeah, it's tough question, you know, because everybody's different. You have to meet them where they are. You know, for me, when I look at a lot of our members, some are very introverted, and they can't even get out of their home and the disease's devastating and that's correct, that's the right way to trauma, that is the right way to actually react to that. And we have other members that are like, I'm going to fight it, you know, let me get my pink on, I'm going to run this race, you know, badass i, and that's the right way to there's nothing wrong with that either, everybody. Everybody has a different approach to a diagnosis, none of them wrong. The best thing you can do as somebody who's in their community and love assignment was to support them, show up for them, you know, and it's okay to show up for them and be quiet. Just being there. And being present doesn't mean that you always have to say something or have answers or try and fix them. You just gotta love them. Right? And showing love and joy is getting them to organizations that know what they're doing. You know, and the fact that now you know about unite for her, if we don't have the answer, we're going to lead you to another place. Or we're going to, hey, we're going to give you this and then you're having trouble with your bills, we're going to send you over to family reach. Oh, and you want to learn about clinical trials in the black breast cancer organization. We're going to send you to touch Oh, and then you want to learn you know about how to get educated on the different types of stages of breast cancer, we're going to send you to breast cancer.org Like we have so many different collaborative partners that there's no reason to go it alone. So you know, I mean, And I think the best bet as an individual that wants to support somebody is you give them love, you give them joy, you show up, right? You show up, find out what's needed. But you can't fix them. Right? All you can do is love them, but give them resources that are trusted and valid. And that's what today's podcast was about is giving you a resource now that's trusted and valued, valid nationwide.

Laura Wakefield: 40:22

And is there a minimum donation that an individual can make? Any amount is Oh, anything,

Sue Weldon: 40:29

we love it, we love our donations we love especially when we get these beautiful letters, and they're handwritten. And we know that it was like, so important for them to give and it was $5. And, and that is meaningful, right? Like, now there's no limit. There is no limit, we just, you know, we always say whatever you can give is so appreciated, because collectively we bring that all together. Oh, it can move balance, you know, so it just has to depend on where you are and your stage of life.

Laura Wakefield: 40:58

So there's no wrong way and there's no minimum amount. Really important takeaways from this. Thank you so much for being my guest. And for all of the amazing work that you're doing there unite for her. I admire you so much for providing for people.

Sue Weldon: 41:16

Thank you incredible team, you know, incredible collaborators, incredible community. It really I know that that's the saying it takes a village but it really does and you want to work together. You don't want to work in silos you want to work together. And that's how real change happens. And Killian knows that 100%

Laura Wakefield: 41:35

I would encourage everybody out there to go to ignite for her and see if you need help or resources for yourself or if there's you want to get involved and help others go to unite prefer and there's going to be information there for

Sue Weldon: 41:48

you will put you to work.

Laura Wakefield: 41:51

Thank you so much. Have a great day about

Sue Weldon: 41:53

it. Thank you

Laura Wakefield: 42:01

Thank you for joining me today on the joy Felicity podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, please like and share and come follow me on all major social media sites at Joy Felicity or on my website, Joy felicity.com. You can follow the link in the description for this episode to all of the places that we can connect. Have a great day everybody and remember, dare to dream. Plan to play live to learn