A Single Mission
Our mission is identifying a new and innovative biological test to detect breast cancer far earlier than is now possible. Since most breast cancer is in the body five to eight years before it can be detected through current methods, there is a window of opportunity for a test that would offer earlier detection, thereby changing the picture of breast cancer treatments and prognosis.
We are the nation’s only breast cancer charity focused exclusively on supporting research for new discoveries of an innovative biological test to detect breast cancer earlier. Earlier detection may prevent invasive surgery, minimize treatment and dramatically increase survival chances.
With technology as it exists today, the death rate from breast cancer each year is approximately 42,000 women and 500 men. In addition, the lives of well over 370,000 women are impacted by this disease each year.* This is the present, but it need not be the future. Over the past decade, research has exploded exponentially, offering enormous opportunities for new discoveries. However, these new discoveries must be championed; they must not be forced into the background or postponed.
Many non-profit organizations have multiple offices, staff and multi-level internal organizations. earlier.org - Friends for an Earlier Breast Cancer Test® has only one office, located in Greensboro, North Carolina, with just a few staff members. The objective of the organization is to direct as many funds as possible, as quickly as possible, to the research. When we achieve our clearly defined mission, we will willingly and thankfully close our doors.
* National Breast Cancer Coalition
Sponsorship
Please join us and support earlier.orgFriends for an Earlier Breast Cancer Test®. Your sponsorship supports critical research seeking an earlier biological detection test for breast cancer. By supporting researchers with promising work to have an opportunity to investigate and discover new data, you are releasing power that could have been lost from lack of funding. We have many events throughout the year offering several sponsorship levels. Your sponsorship will provide you with prominent exposure at these events while supporting this vital research. A
Martha Kaley, Our Founder
Ask any of her friends and they will tell you... Martha did everything right. She was trim and fit, exercised religiously, and had an excellent diet; she was the picture of health. Yet she, like millions of other American women, was diagnosed with breast cancer. The diagnosis came as a complete shock to Martha, who has no history of breast cancer in her family. Fortunately, Martha’s family does have a history of persistence and ingenuity instilled by her inventor father and industrious mother. These qualities led Martha to found Friends You Can Count On, the nation’s first research funding organization devoted solely to earlier detection, based in Greensboro, North Carolina. “I had a cancerous tumor,” explains Martha “that went undiscovered in a mammogram.” Three months later, thanks to a scratch from Sherlock, the family’s frisky Chocolate Lab, Martha noticed a lump in her breast. During surgery to remove this benign lump, Martha’s cautious doctor “did a little exploring” and discovered the cancerous tumor on the chest wall.
SherlockIn March 1992, three months after Martha’s clear mammogram, she was wrestling with Sherlock and he scratched her chest. The next day she noticed that there was a straight-line bruise that ran down her chest, and at the base she felt a mass; her cancer may have otherwise gone undetected.
Martha Kaley is a 24-hour-a-day advocate for earlier detection breast cancer researchnew research that will find the earliest possible method to detect breast cancer, before a tumor has ever formed...
Research Grant Recipients
Since our inception in 1995, Earlier.org - Friends for an Earlier Breast Cancer Test® has awarded $5,115,482 to fund seed grants to 134 projects in the specific area of identifying a biological test to detect breast cancer in its earliest stage.
2024 Total Grants
Duke University (Durham, NC)
“Improving Our Understanding of Genetic Information Sharing among Patients with Pathogenic Mutations Related to Breast Cancer”
Dr. Jennifer Plichta
Centre for Cancer Biology/University of South Australia (Adelaide, Australia)
“Intra-Tumoral CRELD2 is a Novel Predicting Factor for Early Invasive Breast Cancer”
Drs. Marina Kochetkova & Melissa Bochner
Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
$110,000
$30,000
$40,000
$40,000
“A FRET-based heterogeneous phase immunoassay for early detection of soluble MICA (sMICA) in plasma or sera of breast cancer patients as diagnostic and prognostic biomarker.”
Dr. Noberto Walter Zwirner
In research, the most difficult, yet most critical funding to obtain, is that of seed grants. These grants provide the startup money to launch promising investigations. By having such a defined and specific mission, earlier.org - Friends for an Earlier Breast Cancer Test® directs all available funding to this one specific and essential focus. With this targeted approach, the Medical Advisory Committee of earlier.org - Friends for an Earlier Breast Cancer Test® carefully reviews and determines the most promising proposals submitted. The identification of a new test is essential and time is critical. The opportunity to save lives is ours to act upon.
Medical Advisory Board
Matthew Wakefield, MD, FACS Chairman
General Surgeon
Duke Health/Central Carolina Surgery
Medical Director of the Cone Health Breast Cancer Program Greensboro, North Carolina
Cletus A. Arciero, MD
Associate Director for Surgery
Winship Cancer Institute Emory University Atlanta, Georgia
Margaret Bertrand, MD Radiologist
Solis Mammography Greensboro, North Carolina
Elizabeth Brown, MD Radiologist
The Breast Center of Greensboro Imaging Diagnostic Radiology & Imaging Greensboro, North Carolina
Norman Chiu, PhD
Associate Professor
Analytical Chemistry, Nucleic Acids Research, Disease Biomarkers
University of North Carolina at Greensboro Greensboro, North Carolina
Thomas A. Cornett, MD
General Surgeon
Duke Health/Central Carolina Surgery Greensboro, North Carolina
Vinay Gudena, MD
Hematology/Oncology
Cone Health Cancer Center
Greensboro, North Carolina
Ashley Hawkins, MD Radiologist Solis Mammography
Greensboro, North Carolina
Kenneth S. Karb, MD
Department of Oncology (Retired)
Cone Health Medical Group
Smith-McMichael Cancer Center
Morehead Memorial Hospital Eden, North Carolina
Timothy Kute, MD
Associate Professor (Retired) Department of Pathology
Wake Forest Baptist Health
Winston Salem, North Carolina
Kiran Solingapuran Sai, PhD
Assistant Professor, Radiology
Wake Forest Baptist Health
Winston Salem, North Carolina
Stacy Wentworth, MD Radiation Oncology
Wake Forest Baptist Health High Point, North Carolina
Research
A woman is diagnosed with breast cancer every 14 seconds somewhere in the world. An estimated 370,000 American women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in 2024. * This is the present, but it need not be the future. We can do better than this. We must continue to fund seed grants to researchers who are seeking to identify an earlier biological detection test for breast cancer.
Grants of $40,000 allow a researcher to begin work on their project, rather than spending time and energy applying for smaller grants. Dr. Kiran Solingapuran Sai, a member of our Medical Advisory Board, shared with us how he would spend much of his time and energy applying for just $500 in funding. Researchers need to be able to be on point with their work and a $40,000 grant allows that to happen.
We wanted to take this opportunity to provide you with a follow-up of three of the grants we have awarded.
2014 - Professor Neil Forbes, University of Massachusetts
“Detection of micro-scale tumors and metastases with non-toxic bacteria.”
In 2015 Professor Forbes was awarded a five-year, $1.56 million grant from the National Institute of Health to research and develop strains of the salmonella bacteria that can target and kill cancer cells in tumors. Ernest Pharmaceuticals and the Forbes Lab at UMass/ Amherst have developed a salmonella-based cancer therapy that selectively invades cancer cells, then produces and delivers a cancer drug to kill the tumor.
2017 - Dr. Hani Goodarzi, University of California at San Francisco
“Leveraging cancer-specific small RNAs for early detection of high-risk breast cancer.”
A recently published research report details “Researchers at Exai Bio and UCSF have released data demonstrating that Exai’s novel, RNA-based liquid biopsy platform accurately detected breast cancer at the earliest stages and for the smallest tumors. Earlier detection of breast cancer is crucial for optimal patient outcomes but cannot always be achieved based on symptoms or mammography.”
2018 - Dr. Victoria Mango, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York
An Imaging Study – “A Novel Intelligent Breast Exam Tool for Earlier Breast Cancer Detection in Low Resource Populations.”
They were able to complete an iBE study of 424 Nigerian women concurrently. This enables them to analyze use of this novel and innovative device for low resource populations both in the United States and in a low and middle income country where there is potential for greater patient impact where breast imaging is not readily available.
This is real, measurable progress...thank you to all our friends, sponsors and donors!
An earlier biological detection test for breast cancer will change the picture of breast cancer treatments and prognosis for us, and for future generations, including our children and grandchildren.
Gathering of Friends
The Annual Gathering of Friends is our signature event featuring nationally known speakers. The 29th Annual Gathering of Friends will feature Darryl Strawberry as our Keynote Speaker for the Dinner and Annabelle Gurwitch as our Keynote Speaker for the Luncheon.
Dinner
Keynote Speaker: Darryl Strawberry October 9, 2024
High Point Country Club
Luncheon
Keynote Speaker: Annabelle Gurwitch October 16, 2024
Sheraton Greensboro at Four Seasons
Zac Yarbrough describes himself as a big, burly, beard-growing fisherman, hunter, former All-ACC College Football player for the University of Virginia, who swims with swordfish (the baddest fish in the sea). He says, “If I can get breast cancer being this type of guy, then anyone can get it and it doesn’t matter how tough or burly you are.” Zac is never scared to share the good, bad and ugly of life and he has fully taken the chance to spread awareness and a call for action as a result of his breast cancer diagnosis. Zac openly shared his story with us for our Annual Gathering of Friends video.
darryl strawberry is our keynote speaker for the 29th Annual Gathering of Friends Dinner. He is described as a legend by many who have been dazzled by the dynamics of his game, the power he possessed at the plate and the story of redemption that continues to bring hope to so many lives. He earned the legendary nicknames and phrases of one of the most feared homerun hitters in the game over his 17 seasons in Major League Baseball. Throughout his career, Strawberry was one of the most feared sluggers in the sport, known for his prodigious home runs and his intimidating presence in the batter’s box with his 6 ft.-6in. frame and his long, looping swing that elicited comparisons to Ted Williams. Strawberry helped lead the New York Mets to a World Series championship in 1986 and the New York Yankees to two World Series titles in 1996 and 1999. A popular player during his career, Strawberry was voted to the All-Star Game eight straight times from 1984 to 1991. Darryl has faced numerous health and personal challenges throughout his life including struggling with substance abuse, fighting colon cancer (he is a 25-year survivor!) and suffering a heart attack in March 2024. Today, Darryl’s purpose and passion is to give a message of hope & faith to help others transform their lives. “I was once very lost and tormented but now I am found and free…I want everyone to experience (this)… saving and transforming power…” -Darryl Strawberry
Annabelle gurwitch is our keynote speaker for the 29th Annual Gathering of Friends Luncheon. She is a critically acclaimed actress and New York Times Bestselling Author of the memoirs,”Wherever You Go, There They Are, I See You Made an Effort, You Say Tomato, I Say Shut Up, and Fired!”, which was also a Showtime Comedy Special. Gurwitch was the long time host of TBS’s Dinner & a Movie and television viewers remember her memorable appearances on programs including, Better Things, Boston Legal, Seinfeld, Dexter, Murphy Brown, and as the host of the sustainability series, WA$TED, on The Planet Green Network.
In 2020 Annabelle Gurwitch went to have a Covid test and left with a stage 4 lung cancer diagnosis. Annabelle’s story of an accidental lung cancer diagnosis is a very common story among cancer patients. Now Annabelle is in a position to “pay it forward” by reaching out to others who may benefit from hearing her story.
Gathering of Friends
Dinner
Keynote Speaker: Darryl Strawberry
October 9, 2024
High Point Country Club
Luncheon
Keynote Speaker: Annabelle Gurwitch
October 16, 2024
Sheraton Greensboro at Four Seasons
Teeing Off for Ta-Tas
Teeing Off for Ta-Tas is an annual golf tournament held in honor of retired Greensboro (NC) Police Captain Jill Gladieux. Jill is the wife of Sean Gladieux, who serves as the Tournament Director and has also served as President of the Earlier.org - Friends for an Earlier Breast Cancer Test® Board of Directors. Jill was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 40 and has undergone multiple surgeries since her diagnosis. Jill continues her courageous fight on a daily basis with Sean and their daughter by her side.
Toast to the Ta-Tas
Friday, September 27, 2024
4:00 pm - 6:00 pm
High Point Country Club
800 Country Club Drive, High Point, NC
Join us for Toast to the Ta-Tas with New York Times Bestselling novelists and the co-founders of Friends & Fiction: Mary Kay Andrews, Kristin Harmel, Kristy Woodson Harvey, and Patti Callahan Henry. They are four longtime friends with more than seventy published books to their credit. They will be sharing fascinating insider talk about publishing and writing, and discussing their newest releases.
We are thrilled that Mary Kay, Kristin, Kristy and Patti are joining us to raise funding for critical research to identify an earlier biological detection test for breast cancer. 1 in 8 women will develop invasive breast cancer over the course of their lifetime. In this group of four friends, Patti Callahan Henry is a 10-year survivor of breast cancer and Kristin Harmel was diagnosed with breast cancer in October 2022.
Each author will be signing select books. The books will be available for purchase at the event and proceeds will benefit earlier.org - Friends for an Earlier Breast Cancer Test®.
Kristy Woodson Harvey is the New York Times, USA Today and Publisher’s Weekly bestselling author of ten novels including Under the Southern Sky, The Peachtree Bluff Series, The Wedding Veil and The Summer of Songbirds. Her Peachtree Bluff Series is currently in development with NBC with Kristy as co-writer and co-executive producer. She is the winner of the Lucy Bramlette Patterson Award for Excellence in Creative Writing, a finalist for the Southern Book Prize, and her books have received numerous accolades including Southern Living’s Most Anticipated Beach Reads, Entertainment Weekly’s Spring Reading Picks, and Katie Couric’s Most Anticipated Reads. Her newest novel, A Happier LIfe was released June 25, 2024.
Mary Kay Andrews is the New York Times bestselling author of 30 novels. A native of St. Petersburg, Florida, she earned a B.A. in journalism from The University of Georgia. After a 14-year career working as a reporter at newspapers including The Savannah Morning News, The Marietta Journal, and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, where she spent the final ten years of her career, she left journalism in 1991 to write fiction.
Her first novel, Every Crooked Nanny, was published in 1992 by HarperCollins. She went on to write ten critically acclaimed mysteries under her real name, Kathy Hogan Trocheck. In 2002, she assumed the pen name Mary Kay Andrews with the publication of Savannah Blues. In 2006, Hissy Fit became her first New York Times bestseller, followed by fifteen more New York Times, USA Today and Publisher’s Weekly bestsellers. To date, her novels have been published in German, Italian, Polish, Slovenian, Hungarian, Dutch, Czech and Japanese. Her latest novel, Summer at the Saint, was released May 7, 2024.
Toast to the Ta-Tas
Kristin Harmel is the New York Times bestselling, USA Today bestselling, and #1 international bestselling author of The Forest of Vanishing Stars, The Book of Lost Names, The Winemaker’s Wife, and a dozen other novels that have been translated into more than 30 languages and are sold all over the world.
Her latest novel, The Paris Daughter, was released June 6, 2023.
Patti Callahan Henry is a New York Times, Globe and Mail, and USA Today bestselling author of sixteen novels, including her newest, The Secret Book of Flora Lea. She’s also a podcast host of original content for her novels, Surviving Savannah and Becoming Mrs. Lewis.
She is the recipient of The Christy Award “Book of the Year”; The Harper Lee Distinguished Writer of the Year and the Alabama Library Association Book of the Year for Becoming Mrs. Lewis. Patti was a contributor to the monthly life lesson essay column for Parade Magazine. She’s published in numerous anthologies, articles, and short story collections, including an Audible Original about Florence Nightingale, titled Wild Swan narrated by the Tony Award winner, Cynthia Erivo.
Her newest novel, The Secret Book of Flora Lea, is set outside Oxford in the hamlet of Binsey and was released on May 2, 2023.
Doxie Derby & Family Festival
Sunday, September 29, 2024
12 pm - 4 pm
First national bank field Greensboro Grasshoppers Greensboro, NC
Our fourth annual Doxie Derby & Family Festival will be a fun-filled day for the entire family. There will be Doxie races, costume contests for the Dachshunds, vendors, food trucks, silent auction, family games and more!
Logo or name on earlier.org website
Recognition in earlier.org e-blast
May include item in SWAG bag for Race Paticipants
Pink Ribbon Rally
The annual Pink Ribbon Rally is celebrating its 23rd year. Over the lifetime of our involvement with the Stoney Creek Ladies Golf Association - and now Stoney Creek Golf Club - over $100,000 has been directed to critical breast cancer research through the Pink Ribbon Rally.
Blastin’ for Boobs
Blastin’ for Boobs is a fun pink clay target shooting event hosted by Trish and Shane Naylor in loving memory of Trish’s dear aunt, Patsy Ridenhour. What started over a decade ago as a largely grassroots effort of love has expanded to include national sponsors such at Tito’s Vodka, HanesBrands, and ThermoFisher Scientific. Fast-forward over ten years and Blastin’ for Boobs has cumulatively funded over two full earlier.org research grants!
Women and men with all experience levels of sporting clay shooting will gather at Shane’s Sporting Clays for this fun pink clay target shooting event. The staff of Shane’s Sporting Clays is at each station to teach, train and insure safety and most of all, a good time! Groups enjoy private Shooting Cabanas with food and beverage delivered to each cabana by earlier.org staff and volunteers. It’s the perfect full service experience!
November 2, 2024
Shane’s Sporting Clays 6319 US-158, Summerfield, NC
Board of Directors
Executive Officers
David Mize | President DMJ & Co, PLLC
Julie Buie | Past-President Community Volunteer
Angela Wall | Secretary Community Volunteer
Frederick M.Schmidt, Sr. | Treasurer Community Volunteer
James D. Kaley, DDS, MScO Co-Founder, Earlier.org
Friends for an Earlier Breast Cancer Test®
Martha H. Kaley, R.Ph. Co-Founder, Earlier.org
Friends for an Earlier Breast Cancer Test®
Board of Directors
Sheryl Austin Beacon Pointe Advisors
Lindsey Babcock Wake Forest University Intercollegiate Athletics
Robert Chou
Robert Chou Photography
Sean Gladieux Community Volunteer
Mark Kaley, DDS Kaley Orthodontics
Ken Karb, MD Medical Advisory Chairman, Emeritus
Laura Lomax, MD Greensboro Dermatology
Kristen Magod Community Volunteer
John C. Overfield Coltrane & Overfield, PLLC
Zanetta Thompson NC A&T State University Intercollegiate Athletics
Cathy Valent Springs Creative
Matthew Wakefield, MD Chairman of Medical Adisory Board Central Carolina Surgery
Donna D. Welker Honda Dealers of the Carolinas
William Wilcox IV Nexen Pruet, PLLC
Co-founders and Staff
Co-founders
Martha H. Kaley, R.Ph. James D. Kaley, DDS, MScO
Staff
Kara L. McBurney Director of Programs & Events kmcburney@earlier.org
Leslie D. Conway Director of Development lconway@earlier.org
Carolyn B. Walters Business Operations
Angela K. Wall Event Assistant
Kathy N. Secrist Volunteer Coordinator
earlier.org - Friends for an Earlier Breast Cancer Test® P O Box 10363 Greensboro, NC 27404-0363
If using a courier service: earlier.org - Friends for an Earlier Breast Cancer Test® 2407 Dent Street Greensboro, NC 27408
Telephone: 336.286.6620
E-mail: office@earlier.org
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