Underserved Program
SERVING ALL WOMEN
Since 2007, the Fund has been committed to fulfilling Kay Yow’s vision of providing access to quality cancer healthcare for underserved women.

WE KNOW
- Triple Negative Breast Cancer is a more aggressive form of cancer. It grows more quickly, spreads faster, and is more likely to come back than any other kind of breast cancer.
- Because TNBC does not respond to hormonal therapy medicines or medicines that target HER2 protein receptors, there are fewer treatment options available.
- Black women are diagnosed at an earlier age and have a higher mortality rate.
- Clinical trials lack diversity and equal access.
WE WILL
- Award fifteen $50,000 grants to help underserved women gain access to quality cancer healthcare.
- Leverage Play4Kay, our national grassroots movement, as well as media and corporate partners to amplify the need for increased resources for underserved women facing cancer.
- Permeate, educate, and empower the family unit resulting in a ripple effect that will improve survival rates and enhance cancer outcomes throughout underserved communities nationwide.
- Provide a vehicle to break down internal, interpersonal, and environmental barriers to quality cancer healthcare for underserved women with a specific focus on TNBC.
Awareness, education, activation...the time is NOW!
Through our Empowerment Tour, we are able to educate, equip, and empower the next generation in the fight against ALL cancers affecting women.
To schedule a visit of the Empowerment Tour, contact Kelsey Harris at kelsey.harris@kayyow.com.

Underserved Grants To Date:
- 2012 – UNC REX Healthcare – Digital imaging equipment for mobile mammography unit
- 2014 – UNC REX Healthcare – Digital imaging equipment for 2nd mobile mammography unit
- 2019 – Hope Lodge/Lubbock – Housing for patients actively undergoing cancer treatment
- 2019 – Mount Nittany Health – Patient navigator services for rural Pennsylvania
- 2019 – Stephenson Cancer Center – Patient navigator services for rural Oklahoma
- 2019 – UNC REX Healthcare – 3D imaging equipment for 2 mobile mammography units
- 2020 – Tulane Cancer Center – access to clinical trials for minority patients
- 2022 – Upstate Cancer Center – peer-to-peer community outreach program, aimed at reducing breast cancer disparities in low-income communities, particularly among Black and Latino women, in public housing. (Press Release)
- 2022 – Masonic Cancer Center – research in the area of Triple Negative Breast Cancer with an emphasis on its disproportionate effects on Black women (Press Release)
- 2023 – Carle Cancer Institute -patient navigator program for rural Illinois (Press Release)
