DESPITE the hard times, people behind Pink for Life have managed to find a new ally in their efforts to provide subsidized chemotherapy treatments to people with breast cancer, reportedly the leading form of cancer afflicting Filipinos today.

During a recent cocktail party at the newly opened Glorietta 5, Bench, the country?s leading homegrown lifestyle brand, launched two new ladies? fragrances aptly named Faith and Inspire. Together, they?re dubbed as ?Scents for Life.?

Ben Chan, the brand?s head honcho, has pledged to donate five percent of sales generated by the two fragrances to Pink for Life. Each variant costs P288 a bottle. It wasn?t the first time Chan dug deep into his pockets for such a cause.

Instead of pocketing his winnings during a guesting stint in ?Deal or No Deal? sometime last year, Chan donated the P300,000-prize money to Pink for Life.

?Mons [Tantoco], who?s an active member of the foundation, and I are good friends,? said Chan. ?When they approached me for assistance, I didn?t think twice because it?s really for a good cause.?

Beneficiaries

For almost two years now, the foundation has helped over 200 people (one of its beneficiaries was a man) with Stage 1 and 2 breast cancer. The foundation shoulders 70-80 percent of the beneficiary?s expenses as she undergoes six sessions of chemotherapy.

Thus, instead of spending P10,000- P12,000 per session, the patient only pays around P1,200. The foundation has limited its assistance to Stage 1 and 2 patients because of the cost involved.

?As the cancer becomes more aggressive, the cost of treating it increases dramatically,? said Tantoco. ?We would have wanted to help everybody, but there are simply not enough funds to go by.?

Tantoco and her group were able to raise a modest sum last year in a fundraising auction attended by members of high society. Most of the foundation?s beneficiaries are either indigent or working-class women and housewives.

Led by board chair Irene Martel-Francisco, the foundation?s other members, apart from Tantoco, are Sigalit Djemal, Mario Katigbak and Doctors Vicki Belo and Diana Cua-Balcells.

As more donations hopefully pour in, the foundation hopes to expand its program this year beyond Luzon. In its desire to discourage outright ?dole-outs,? said Tantoco, the foundation requires its beneficiaries to shoulder a small portion of their respective treatments.

?We want people with breast cancer to know that there?s hope for them,? Djemal added. ?We want to provide them that hope.?

Signs

Balcells, an oncologist, is responsible for assessing whether a would-be beneficiary is qualified or not. She bases her decision on the patient?s pathology report and chemotherapy prescription provided by her doctors.

?We don?t need to examine the patient,? she said. ?My role is simply to make sure that she either belongs to Stage 1 or 2. There have been cases when the breast cancer was already in the advance stages. We had to turn them down.?

Telltale signs for Stage 1 and 2 are lumps, which grow bigger with every stage, on either one or both breasts. In some Stage 2 cases, lumps can look deceivingly small. But once a connection has been established between those lumps and a person?s lymph nodes, chances are the cancer is now beyond its first stage.

?The cancer is concentrated in the mammary glands, but they spread through the lymph nodes,? said Balcells. ?And guys are not totally immune from it. One percent of breast-cancer patients are men.?

Men also have breast tissues, but women, for the simple reason that they have more breast tissues as well as the female hormone estrogen, are more susceptible to breast cancer. In fact, Balcells added, breast cancer among men is usually more fatal because of late detection.

?If they deal with it early, the chances of survival are good,? she said. ?But most men, unmindful of the fact that they can also develop breast cancer, find out about it too late.?

For some reason, the Philippines has the highest incidence of breast cancer in Southeast Asia. Breast cancer, next to heart disease, is the leading cause of death among Filipinos, said Tantoco.

Although none of the women in Pink for Life are breast-cancer survivors, the war they?re waging against the Big C is a personal one. Tantoco knows a number of women, some of whom are her friends and their loved ones, who have either survived or succumbed to the disease.

Djemal?s mother has managed to survive not just one, but two bouts with breast cancer. Two of Balcells? aunts caught the disease. Unfortunately, only one of them managed to survive.

?Through these efforts, we want to inspire people to have faith to go on with their lives,? said Tantoco. ?Breast cancer is curable if detected early. We simply need to help each other manage it.?