PONTIAC, Mich. (WXYZ) — Behind that beautiful warm smile and humble spirit is an amazing woman.
“My mom passed in 2000 so I had to get custody of my five siblings plus I have a son of my own, so I was 23 with five kids,” said Eudora Ward.
There are times Eudora Ward has battled through life.
“When you don't know who your natural father is, and mother died so young, and you are the oldest, you look for love,” said Ward.
But she never imagined a routine mammogram would give her results that would place her in a fight for her life.
“In July of 2017 they found a lump,” said Ward. “It wasn't me feeling it in the shower or anything, it was because I went and got a mammogram.”
A month later, Eudora would receive two lumpectomies and advice from her doctor to start chemo, radiation, and a 5-year pill regimen. She declined and still putting others before herself. Then two years after surgery the cancer returned.
“It came back aggressive, stage three. The first time it was stage one, in 2017, in 2019 it came back aggressive, and they immediately started me on chemo, so I had only been working at my job Oakland Community Health Network in Troy for only a year,” said Ward.
That’s when the Pink Fund came in,” said Ward.
“I was only getting 60% of my income, so I filled out the application with my nurse navigator. She did everything, she faxed everything for me,” explains Ward.
“They were able to pay two months of rent, two months of my car note, they paid my Internet bill and my utilities,” said Ward. “It's like the Pink Fund came out of nowhere it was a blessing in disguise.”
“I like to talk a lot about. We can qualify and quantify. How many house payments we've made with how much money, or how many car payments we've made.? Or utility payments or insurance payments but what we can't qualify or quantify is what I like to call redemptive hope,” said Molly MacDonald, Founder of the Pink Fund.
We first met when she was up for entrepreneur of the year in 2017. After her own down times following a breast cancer diagnosis.
“I think the irony is that I couldn't help myself so when I was in treatment because my house went into foreclosure,” said MacDonald. “Ford credit wanted to repo my car; Edison wanted to shut off my utilities. I ended up in line at the food bank and I hate to say I had the Oprah “ah-ha” moment like ‘why isn't somebody helping someone like myself with this."
Molly became that somebody in 2006 when she started the Pink Fund, and it is now a national organization.
"I said I want to pay these women's bills for 90 days, directly to their creditors and remove the worry and allow them to move forward with treatment and redeem their lives and we have now paid out close to 5 million,” said MacDonald.
Taking hold of a new outlook on life... priceless.
“I just want to live. You should and don't let anybody or anything keep you from that,” said Ward.
“The best is yet to come I know it is, the best is yet to come,” said Ward. “I'm single, I'm about to be 48 and I'm finally living my best life.”
$250,000 Available in Financial Assistance via The Pink Fund to Help Offset Financial Burdens for Breast Cancer Patients Throughout Michigan 2021 applications officially open. Qualifying recipients could receive up to $3,000 over ninety days. Pink Fund
