Kind Acts In Action : Faye Dietiker Of Breast Cancer Angels

Our tribute and praise goes out to Faye Dietiker of California. She is the founder of Breast Cancer Angels. Below you can read Faye’s own story of her awesome organization, and I have to say that Faye is truly an Earth Angel! Thank you so much for making this world a better place to live in with your selfless kindness and compassion!

I live in Cypress, California with my wonderful husband Don. I am a mom with an extended family of five adult children. I have a beautiful baby granddaughter, Carianne who is 2 years old. I am also an 8 year survivor of stage 4 breast cancer and the founder and director of Breast Cancer Angels. Breast Cancer Angels is an organization that I began in 2000 to financially and emotionally assist women in treatment for breast cancer. When I was going through very aggressive experimental treatment I sat next to several young women who had to decide whether to buy their anti-nausea medications ($270.00 for 9 pills) or buy groceries to feed their children. Of course the children came first and the mom’s were sick for days. I decided that if I survived I would find a way to help these women feed their children and buy their medications.

My concept was that for $20 a month anyone could become an “Angel” and help support women going through breast cancer treatment. We started with 6 “Angels” putting in $20 a month and we now have over 250 “Angels” who send in from $20 to several hundred dollars a month. Our motto is “We can all be Angels here on earth”. In the past six years we have given out over $650,000 in financial aid. We are currently assisting over 70 women a month, with 56 children in these households. We assist with food, housing, utilities, medical co-pays, prescription costs and much more. We get referrals from ten Breast Centers in Orange, Los Angeles and San Diego Counties and from other agencies. Breast Cancer Angels is run out of my home office and 100% of all donations go back out in financial assistance. A corporate sponsor meets our overhead.

I feel blessed every day that I am still here and able to make the breast cancer journey a little easier for the women we assist.

For more information about Faye and the Breast Cancer Angels go to breastcancerangels.org

Thought For The Day

They Grow In Clusters

Though I have never seen the Sequoia trees of California, known as Redwoods, I am told they are spectacular, towering as much as 300 feet above the ground. Strangely, these towering trees have unusually shallow root systems that spider out just under the surface of the ground to catch as much of the surface moisture they can. And this is their vulnerability. Storms with heavy winds would almost always bring these giants crashing to the ground but this rarely happens because they grow in clusters and their intertwining roots provide support for one another against the storms.

When we are together, either as a family or as a church, we provide this same support. Pain and suffering come to all of us. But, just like those giant Sequoia trees, we can be supported in those difficult times by the touch of one another’s lives. The knowledge that we have someone; that we are not alone; that there is someone who is willing to touch us, hold us, keeps us from being destroyed.

Brett Blair

“May you always have someone to uphold you in the storms of life.”

Lorraine Jara

“The point is not to pay back kindness but to pass it on.”

Julia Alvarez