REGION: For many, fighting cancer is a full-time occupation
Group offers financial help to late-stage cancer patients
By RUTH MARVIN WEBSTER - Staff Writer | ∞
Cancer patient Georgia Mitsopoulos has had assistance with her rent from the Cancer Angels of San Diego. (Photo by Don Boomer - staff photographer) 
Cancer patient Georgia Mitsopoulos looks on as fellow patient Cathy Staub shows one of the prosthetic legs she has used since her surgery. Both women have received assistance with their rent from the Cancer Angels of San Diego. (Photo by Don Boomer - staff photographer) OCEANSIDE --- The cost of cancer is not limited to pain and suffering; it also can take a devastating financial toll, cancer patients and health advocates say.
While medical treatment is usually covered by private insurance companies or state programs such as Medicare, other costs such as special equipment, gas to drive to doctors appointments and parking or food, are not.
Help for cancer patients involves more than just finding a cure, said Oceanside resident and cancer survivor Georgia Mitsopoulos, who used to earn a six-figure income as an investment adviser.
"New treatments and drugs keep you alive and lengthen your life, but you're left disabled and unable to work," said Mitsopoulos, who has an inoperable form of breast cancer.
Some patients don't know how they'll make ends meet.
One small group stepping in to fill that gap is Cancer Angels of San Diego, a Carlsbad-based nonprofit that provides funds to a limited number of patients with terminal cancer.
The group estimates that 25 percent of last-stage cancer patients in San Diego --- roughly 12,000 people --- will find themselves unable to afford basic necessities such as rent, food, utilities and transportation.
"The common thread in all of these people's stories is that they were living full and happy lives before the cancer," said Encinitas resident Eve Beutler, who founded Cancer Angels.
Beutler started the organization in October 2007 after hearing that Mitsopoulos' funding from another cancer survivor organization was going to be cut off.
"I got the letter that they had to terminate assistance, and I cried with Eve," said Mitsopoulos. "Right away, she pulled together a fundraiser to help cover my rent and utilities."
Cancer Angels of San Diego is now helping nine survivors whom they have pledged to assist throughout their lifetime, said Beutler.
"We budget for two years for each person, with a maximum of $1,500 a month," she said. "And we take on more people only when we bring in enough money."
Unsure footing
Escondido resident Cathy Staub is another cancer survivor who said she ran into financial difficulties as she battled the disease.
Eight years ago, Staub had a chronic foot condition that was finally diagnosed as a myxoid fibrosarcoma. Immediately after the diagnosis, her doctors decided to amputate her right leg just below the knee.
"The morning they were going to take my limb, it was dark and cold and really kinda creepy," she said. "It was surreal."
At that time, Staub ---- who divorced in 1993 after a 20-year marriage ---- was working as a medical assistant for a local weight-loss clinic. She said that after surgery, and before she could be fitted with an artificial leg, her employer told her she would not be returning to her job.
"People say to me, 'They can't get rid of you,' but I tell them, 'Oh, yes they can,' " Staub said. "They'll find a way."
Ten months later, another tumor was found at the end of Staub's partially amputated leg. After a course of radiation and chemotherapy, Staub said she developed an infection and then gangrene. The doctors decided to remove even more of her leg, this time above her knee.
She was fitted for a prosthesis, one that she said cost nearly $60,000 and thankfully was covered by her American Association Retired People supplemental insurance.
Then in March ---after being cancer-free for almost four years, during which time "she started to get really hopeful" --- her doctors found two new tumors, one of which was benign.
Next week, she will have the malignant tumor removed from her thigh. She said she is most worried about how she will heal this time.
"I'm 59, and I am lucky to be here," she said. "I've been dealing with this for seven years now. And each time it resurfaces, it gets harder and harder."
Staub said she has endured nearly 90 radiation treatments for her cancer and is now on permanent disability, with her medical costs covered by Medicare. But as a single grandmother diagnosed with cancer, she has not been able to find enough work to fully support herself.
"Because of my situation, I would like to be able to work from home," said Staub, who works on a case-by-case basis for an interim health care company that helps seniors and the disabled. "I get depressed sometimes, sure. And the financial situation is a big part of that. But I tell myself not to think about the financial 'what ifs' but to take it one day at a time. I never used to do that."
Angel to the rescue
Last week, Beutler visited Staub with a check of $750 to pay the monthly rent for her small one-bedroom apartment in Escondido.
Staub says that thanks to Cancer Angels, she has been able to stay in her apartment where she feels safe and comfortable.
"Three months ago, my friend Connie told me about them (Cancer Angels) and said I needed to call them. I did, and Eve (and Cancer Angels) have been just a godsend."
Cancer Angel has been a lifesaver for Mitsopoulos too.
"Without them, I'd be homeless," she said. Mitsopoulos was diagnosed with Stage IV metastatic breast cancer in September 2005.
Since then, she has been receiving chemotherapy and has been able to work only sporadically as a notary because of pain, nausea and fatigue. The fact that the mortgage business is in decline hasn't helped her job prospects at 57 either.
"I really wish I could work," said Mitsopoulos of her situation. "I would be so happy when I earned my $150. I would take my pillow and try to rest in the car before a signing. I wish I could earn more. I really do."
Divorced in 2003, Mitsopoulos said she rents a three-bedroom house in Oceanside with her 18-year-old daughter and another roommate. Her two older children are married with children of their own.
"Somehow, it seems only fair that if someone has to fight for their life, he or she should not have to fight to stay in their home too," said Beutler, adding that most of the people she helps are single people who were self-employed professionals before they were diagnosed with cancer.
"It makes me outraged on a daily basis that we have such a great country ---- and I am such a proud American ---- but if you get sick, they throw you out the street," she said. "There is just no safety net."
Visit www.cancerangelsofsandiego.com.
Contact staff writer Ruth Marvin Webster at (760) 901-4074 or rwebster@nctimes.com.
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typical.... wrote on Jul 26, 2008 10:31 PM:while the President writes checks to assist getting condoms to Africans, our Federal Government, can't keep the money and assistance at home where you and I bust our butts to pay for the Federal excesses via taxes, why in hell are we helping, 3rd world countries that hate and despise us, instead of 1st taking care of our own citizens. We shouldn't be sending another stinking dime over seas OR across the border until our own citizens are taken care of....
Cure for Cancer wrote on Jul 27, 2008 7:48 AM:We have the cure for cancer. Read the China Study by Colin Campbell. The trouble is that most people do not want to do what they need to do to stay healthy.
Thank you angels wrote on Jul 27, 2008 10:49 AM:Read this story again caerfully; every cancer victim WANTS to work, struggles to work, doesn't beg for help. They are suffering unimaginable pain, loss of limbs, etc., but I oculdn't find one word of self-pity in this article. Yes, I agree our goveernment must help AMERICANS first, but that's pipe dream. Those chroicled in this story are heros,sadly suffering greatly through no choice of their own. Cancer ravages, our society needs more angels cause the government is not willing to step up.
former republican wrote on Jul 27, 2008 2:20 PM:Cancer is not the only chronic disease that devastates and kills. Our family has the autoimmune gene. Ten years ago our lives were very normal, very ordinary, then the gene from hell turned on and The Horror began.
Eight years ago I was forced into early retirement. My income dropped by 2/3. Then two years later my, then twenty year old UCSD senior, son was hit by a slightly different but genetically linked variation of The Horror. He can no longer walk unaided, talk, or use his hands even to pick up a fork or piece of tiny cube of bread. He nearly died last summer because the condition froze his chest wall and kept him from breathing.
My version keeps me from eating. I now am a look alike for a Korean War orphan, but I still have use of my hands arms and legs. As long as I can manage to eat an ever decreasing amount of food and deal with the violent stomach flu results of eating, I can take care of my son while my wife is at work. The intestinal spasms, sores, and extreme pain are overwhelming sometimes but my son’s pain is far worse. I must continue, so he can continue.
A new medication, an infusion every six weeks, has kept him alive this past year. The infusions cost 6 thousand dollars EACH TIME of which my wife's insurance pay less than 4 thousand. My wife cannot retire because there would be no way to pay for the medicine without her insurance. As it is, the wheel chairs, special chairs in shower, canes, special pillows, doctor's extra charges, cost us thousands of dollars a year plus now an extra two thousand dollars every six weeks.
Last year before the infusions, we spent over 10 thousand dollars above and beyond what my wife’s medical insurance covered. This year it will likely be above twenty thousand. We looked into Social Security Disability and Medicare and found it would take longer than two years for us to get an answer from them about my son’s ability to qualify. There is now a lengthy waiting list and the time to an answer has more than doubled since George W took office and started chronically underfunding the staffing of these agencies. Even should my son qualify, his medication might not be covered.
Of course he could not live two years without the medication. This wonderful American medical care, the best in the world according to Rush, Fox News and the other Republican liars, is slowly stealing away my wife's chances of having anything left of her retirement after our son and I pass.
The three of us did nothing wrong. We did not drink alcohol or smoke or take drugs. We did not run up credit card deby. My wife and I did not take out second mortgages. We saved money every year. We invested wisely in retirement funds and the stock market, CDs etc. Suddenly out of the blue a genetic time bomb went off in our lives. One we had no way of knowing about.
Wait until it happens to you. Even an avid Limbaugh listener like I was for years starts to re-evaluate the "blessings" of this country. I will vote for NO Republican again EVER. I regret every vote I gave to Nixon Reagan and the current president’s father. What a fool I have been.
We ALL need universal medical care. Yes, I mean Hillary care. You fools who do not agree, who violently oppose medical care as an American right, are just one diagnosis, one sudden onslaught of disease away from finding out how bitter the taste of all your mocking and endless repeating of Rush talking points feel when The HORROR hits you or someone you love.
I spent thousands of hours listening to that arrogant pill popping, hired gun monster. I cannot believe the mean uncaring person that listening to Rush turned me into. I learned too late. It took the near death of my son and the amazing costs of his Horror to wake me from the spell of the LYING CONS that now control all talk radio and drive every cable news cycle on television and keep us all from having affordable health care.
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