16
Years of help
100%
To patients
2
Causes served
In memory of Myrtle Lee Carter
We started where a mother left off.
MLC Cancer Foundation carries the name — and the intent — of Myrtle Lee Carter: to meet families in the hardest weeks of a cancer diagnosis with practical, immediate help.
Home / About
Myrtle Lee Carter
The name
A woman who gave, right to the end.
Myrtle Lee Carter spent her life looking after her neighbors — a plate of food here, a ride to an appointment there. When cancer took her in 2007, her family knew the truest tribute wouldn't be a plaque. It would be more of what she already did.
So the foundation took her initials and her instinct: notice who's struggling, and help them today. Every grant we pay is a small continuation of the way she moved through the world.
Don't wait to be asked. If you can help, help now.
Founder
Pat Via turned grief into a plan.
A year after losing her mother, Pat received her own diagnosis. She knew firsthand how fast the bills stack up beside the fear — and how little of that the average family is ready for.
In 2009 she founded MLC to close that exact gap. Sixteen years and hundreds of families later, Pat is still standing, and still signing off on the help herself. This has never been a big, distant charity. It's a neighbor with a checkbook and a phone.
Pat Via
1
Help should be fast.
A diagnosis doesn't schedule itself. We answer applications within a week — often the same day — because rent and chemo don't wait.
2
Every dollar is patient money.
100% of donations go straight to patient assistance. Grants and volunteers cover our overhead, so your gift pays a real bill.
3
Two ribbons, one door.
Breast and ovarian cancer, together. Ovarian patients are too often left out — here they walk through the same door as everyone else.
What we believe
Three convictions that shape every grant.
Sixteen years
A quiet mission, one year at a time.
2007
Myrtle Lee Carter passes.
The loss that started everything.
2009
MLC Cancer Foundation is founded.
Pat Via begins in Martinsville, VA.
2011
First A Pink Event.
The annual night that funds the year.
2016
Ovarian cancer added.
The teal ribbon joins the mission.
2021
Regional referral network.
Clinics send patients straight to us.
2026
16th A Pink Event & new site.
Still one family at a time.
Carry the work forward.
Whether you give, volunteer, or simply pass our name to a family who needs it — you keep Myrtle's instinct alive.
