2020 was a difficult year for the whole world. For Lori Durham of Silverdale, it was even more brutal. Diagnosed in May of that year with breast cancer, Durham had to navigate the difficulties of the COVID pandemic lockdowns just to get to treatment. Then in early November, she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer as well.

“It wasn’t a metastatic thing,” Durham said. “It was two separate cancers.” Durham later found out she had a BRCA 1 gene mutation, which makes cancer more likely in some people. “I’m full of life, not full of worry, but I do make sure I hit those required annual screenings now,” she said.

But getting to treatment, which included daily trips to Seattle for numerous lab tests, radiation treatment and chemotherapy, came with bills that began to drain her resources. “I got a bill for $900 from St. Michael Medical Center and I thought, ‘what am I going to do?’ I pay my bills, I pay them on time. I just started crying,” she said.

But earlier, a friend reached out to her and told her about the Kathleen Sutton Fund, a volunteer organization that reimburses women who travel to receive cancer treatment. “At the same time I got that bill for $900, I got a check from the Kathleen Sutton Fund for $358. It was just a nice little help to have that money come in, helping me with transportation costs.”

Durham, who does medical billing from home as a career, is now a board member for KSF.

KSF is named for a woman who contracted cancer and died in 2004. Prior to that, her friend Vivian Parnell drove her to appointments. The pair realized that the cost of transportation for people on the Kitsap Peninsula to and from Seattle, as well as to various places on the peninsula itself, was significant. They founded the fund in 2003 to help women going to treatment get reimbursed for transportation.

Now working in Kitsap, Jefferson, Clallam and Mason counties, KSF is helping 143 women this year and has spent about $45,000 in reimbursement. “Last year we helped 280 women, and 157 of those were in Kitsap County,” said Barbara Carr, president of the KSF board. “We don’t have a cap for women who need reimbursement. There is no financial application,” she said. “And if they haven’t heard of us, they can be reimbursed up to six months retroactively.”

Carr, a retired oncology nurse, said that while there are some facilities in Poulsbo, Silverdale and one being built in Port Townsend, most patients have to go to Seattle, which requires a ferry ride both ways. “We’ll pay for ferry rides, bridge tolls, gasoline, public transportation bills and whatever is required for women to get to treatment.”

Andrea Manchester had gone to a fundraiser for KSF years ago, and now serves as the organization’s executive director. They have client advocates who help women apply. “We give each woman a little tracker that gives us the information of where they went, dates, miles, all those details and that’s calculated out, and they receive their check in about a week or so.”

Manchester said that the organization does have established donors and also receives some grants, but they also need new donors and volunteers.

Shelly King of Poulsbo has received a reimbursement and now volunteers to raise funds. “I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2018, and I chose to do all of my treatments in Seattle. My social worker told me about the KSF, because I’d be taking a ferry ride every single Friday back and forth for six months straight,” King said. “I reached out, and they immediately got me ferry passes. It was about $400 a month just to get to my appointments for chemo.”

King, a real estate agent, is in remission. She began originally doing fundraisers for the Susan G. Komen Foundation for breast cancer. “I met Barbara and Andrea, and they were amazing and just the kind of people I want to be involved with, the kind of organization I want to be involved with.” King said that Carr and Manchester saw the kind of fundraising that she and her team did and asked for her input.

Durham said that cancer treatment can be a financial burden too heavy for many people. “When you’ve always been able to get bills paid, and then all of a sudden it weighs so heavy on you, and you don’t know what to do…and then you get some reimbursement there that just sort of lifts you the little bit that you need,” she said. “I do Medicare billing for a living, so I know how a lot of this works, and I’ve been doing that for 30 years. I would never wish this on anyone. Cancer diagnoses are overwhelming, and every little bit of help, of education, of assistance, is really a need.”