In honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the Saint Agatha Foundation is celebrating 15 years of helping women with an anniversary gala. The organization was started by Laurie Mezzalingua to help provide financial assistance to breast cancer patients facing hardships. 

“My daughter had breast cancer. She was diagnosed in 1997. We just did whatever we could to help her and to heal her,” said Kathleen Mezzalingua, the chairwoman of Saint Agatha Foundation.

Mezzalingua lost her daughter Laurie to breast cancer in 2009.

“When Laurie got involved with any organization, she jumped in with both feet. So they became her close friends, all the breast cancer patients. They all communed together and they socialized together and they were good friends. She just felt very badly that they could not afford what she could. So she started Saint Agatha Foundation, her own foundation,” said Kathleen.

The foundation is named after Saint Agatha, recognized in some religious communities as the patron saint of breast cancer patients.

“She started very small, just helping them with rides, some basic operations and surgeries. Then it just developed into 'I will help them with whatever they need,' ” said Kathleen. 

Kathleen says when her daughter’s battle was coming to an end, she asked her mother to take over the foundation. 

“She said, 'Mom, just take care of women,' ” said Kathleen.

Over the last decade, the foundation has provided financial assistance to more than 12,000 breast cancer patients in Central and Northern New York.

“We’ve morphed and evolved into paying for mortgage payments, household expenses,” said Kathleen.

Annmarie Giannino is the patient program coordinator for Cancer Connects. The nonprofit organization helps adult cancer patients with assistance both financially and mental support through their cancer journey.

“Saint Agatha Foundation has partnered with Cancer Connects or I guess makes us their facilitator. We receive applications from nine different counties in our area and we process them, we make determinations, find out what they’re eligible for and give back to our patients in a way that makes it pretty profound to them,” said Giannino.

Giannino is a breast cancer survivor. She says it’s organizations like Saint Agatha that truly make a difference for people like herself.

“They are a beautiful community organization that wants to give back directly to the patients. Your money is going right to patient support. Gas cards that they might need, grocery cards that they may need. Paying medical bills, copays, garments that they may need, instead of just buying a pair of pink socks that really isn’t going anywhere,” said Giannino.

The foundation will hold its gala for only the second time since it started 15 years ago to not only celebrate Laurie’s legacy, but how far it's come.

“I get signs from her all the time, that this is what she wanted us to do,” said Kathleen.

The foundation is holding its 15th anniversary gala on Thursday, October 24 at the Oncenter in Syracuse.