Prevention
Early detection
Est. 2009 - Martinsville, VA
The best time to fight cancer is before it starts.
MLC Cancer Foundation is putting prevention first — free health screenings, dietary and lifestyle programs, and genetic-risk testing that help our community catch cancer early or avoid it altogether. And when a diagnosis does come, we're still here to help with the bills.
Oct 24
Years of help
Free
To patients
100%
A Pink Event
We CAN beat CANcer - For the women MLC serves - And the families who carry them through - We CAN beat CANcer - For the women MLC serves - A Pink Event -
What We do
The unglamorous costs of staying alive long enough to get well.
Most foundations fund research. We fund the smaller, more immediate things - the bills that pile up between appointments, the gas to get to chemo, the babysitter so a parent can rest.
Assistance
Childcare during treatment
Treatment lasts hours. Recovery lasts days. Someone kind to be with the kids - we pay them.
avg $280 / week
Assistance
Treatment-adjacent costs
Wigs and prosthetics. The lymphatic massage insurance won't touch. The little things that matter.
avg $220 / visit
Assistance
Groceries & household
When chemo takes the energy to cook - or the paycheck to pay for it - we keep the kitchen stocked.
avg $340 / month
Assistance
Co-pays & medical bills
Insurance pays for the chemo. We pay the deductible, the co-pay, the lab fee, the imaging.
avg $420 / family
Our story - in brief
We started where a mother left off.
Pat Via lost her mother, Myrtle Lee Carter, in 2007. A year later, after her own diagnosis, she founded MLC - built around the kind of practical, immediate help her mother would have wanted to give.
Sixteen years later, Pat is still standing. So is the foundation. The work goes on the same way it started: one family at a time, one paid bill at a time, in a small Virginia town that decided no one should fight cancer alone.
Est. 2009 - Founder
Pat Via
If you've been diagnosed
Start here.
A short, private application. We follow up within a week - usually sooner. There's no fee, no paperwork beyond the basics, and no judgement.
✓
Any cancer diagnosis, any stage
✓
Currently in treatment or within 6 months post-treatment
✓
Martinsville–Henry County or surrounding region
If you want to help
Give where it lands.
100% of donations go directly to patient assistance. Grants and volunteer work cover our operations - every dollar you give pays a bill.
$100 covers a week of childcare during chemo.
A Pink Event
A Pink Event - 16th annual - save the date
A pink event,
sixteen years running.
Food, music, guest speakers, and a room full of people who refuse to give up on each other. The single biggest night of the year for MLC - and the one that funds the rest of it.
Date
Oct 24, 2026
Time
3:00 PM
Venue
West Piedmont Higher Education Center
Tickets
Free
Story
Story - Jul 2025
"I never expected anyone to pay my groceries." A patient story.
How a one-page application changed six months of Stephanie's treatment.
Article
Press - Sep 2025
Local foundation marks 16 years of patient assistance
A profile of MLC's growth from one family's grief to a sixteen-year mission.
Announcement
Update - Aug 2025
Cancer support expands with regional partnership
A new referral pipeline gets patients to assistance faster.
News & in the media
Recent coverage and updates.
"You are important. Listen to your body and respect your feelings. Don't give up. Every day is worth it."
H
Hashmat Effendi
Cancer survivor
Stay close to the work
A short letter, sent quarterly.
Patient stories, event updates, and a transparent look at how every dollar is spent. No fundraising spam. Unsubscribe in one click.