Family Medicine News Archive Featured in the Media JeffNEWS

The Pennsylvania Breast Cancer Coalition (PBCC) will join with the Pennsylvania Department of Health and local medical and community leaders at Thomas Jefferson University on Thursday, January 26, at 10 a.m. to kick off the PBCC’s Income Tax Check-Off for breast cancer research. This event will be held at Jefferson Alumni Hall.

Pat Halpin-Murphy, PBCC president and founder, along with Pennsylvania Deputy Secretary of Health, Joanne Grossi, will present this year’s Income Tax Check-Off for Breast and Cervical Cancer research grant to Julie Becker, Ph.D., MPH, research assistant professor, Department of Family and Community Medicine, Thomas Jefferson University. Dr. Becker’s project is titled “Health Information Seeking Behaviors of Long-Term Breast Cancer Survivors Using a Self-Management Model.”

“Dr. Becker is the only grant recipient this year,” says Michael Rosenthal, M.D., vice chair of Academic Programs in the Department of Family and Community Medicine. “We are gratified to know that her outreach to breast cancer survivors is being recognized. This type of community-based research is increasingly important in enhancing approaches to care.”

Since the PBCC’s Income Tax Check-Off was signed into law in 1997, this unique cancer research initiative has raised over $1.7 million for Pennsylvania-based cancer researchers. Thousands of Pennsylvania taxpayers contribute an average of $8 from their refunds and recognize the PBCC’s Income Tax Check-Off as the most popular refund donation option. Pennsylvanians are reminded to check line 35 on the PA40 tax form to donate their state tax refund to breast and cervical cancer research.

“When we began the Income Tax Check-Off we knew it would provide vital, life-saving research,” said Halpin-Murphy. “The incredible success of this simple and effective way to raise research dollars renews our commitment to find a cure for breast cancer now…so our daughters won’t have to.”

Halpin-Murphy chairs the Pennsylvania Cancer Control, Prevention and Research Advisory Board’s Income Tax Check-Off Committee, which recommends how the refund donations should be distributed. To date, 41 research grants have been awarded.

The PBCC, founded in 1993, is a non-profit organization dedicated to ending the breast cancer epidemic through research, education outreach and advocacy. For more information about the PBCC, visit the website at  www.pabreastcancer.org.