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Why Does PeopleBeatingCancer Charge For Some Programs?

Multiple myeloma patients sometimes ask why PeopleBeatingCancer charges fees for some of their services. The reason is straightforward.

I launched PeopleBeatingCancer because 4 years of aggressive conventional cancer therapies brought remission, relapse, remission, relapse and “there’s nothing more we can do for you.” That was from 2/94-9/97. More than 3 years of pain, organ damage, tens of 000’s of $, resulted in failure and end-stage MM.

Painful experience and years of research taught me two things:

  1. Autologous Stem Cell Transplantation, according to research, can increase a patient’s first remission but not length of life (OS). Those patients that do achieve a long remission from ASCT suffer a lifetime of long-term and late stage side effects.
  2. Standard-of-Care MM therapy neglects advanced, elderly, kidney damaged, bone damaged, etc. all patients who are not the youngest, healthiest, low risk MM patients.

https://youtu.be/omunKSNZy84

I have learned that while SOC MM therapies such as radiation and chemotherapy are necessary tools in the fight against multiple myeloma, general oncologists often over-prescribe these toxic therapies causing pain, suffering and death to the average MM survivor.

When I received 501c3 approval and non-profit status from the IRS I launched PeopleBeatingCancer in June of 2004.

Annual tax returns document modest fundraising and donor support from 2004-2015. These tax returns document expenses including, one employee (AD working part time), web hosting, programming,  graphic design, fundraising expenses, etc.

What the tax returns fail to document is that the long-term and late stage side effects of my conventional MM therapies from 2/94-9/97 made annual fundraising more and more difficult for me.

Since 2015 PBC has been reducing its donor support and increasing its fee-for-service support. It is my cancer coaching that has enabled PBC to rely less on donations.

That’s a picture of me in 2015 after I finished hand cycling the Cleveland Marathon.

The website called PeopleBeatingCancer.org is comprised of almost 2000 blog posts. More than 900 of these posts focus on my blood cancer, multiple myeloma. The site solicits more than 10,000 visitors monthly. I answer hundreds of questions about multiple myeloma monthly.

All of this is free of charge.

The current version of the Multiple Myeloma Cancer Coaching Program includes

  • 24 video lessons,
  • 21 cancer coaching guides,
  • hyperlinks to more than 150 studies (in those guides)  and
  • membership in the closed, online support group called Beating Myeloma.

Evidence-based therapies as well as anecdotal information from fellow MM patients is a key component of the MM CC program.

My goal is to provide unbiased,  evidence-based information about:

  • symptoms
  • diagnostic testing, staging
  • cytogenic testing,
  • conventional therapies- chemo/surgery/radiation,
  • non-conventional therapies- integrative, complementary, alternative,
  • side effects identification, prevention and management, 
  • issues/philosophies,

and ongoing support to enable multiple myeloma patients, survivors and caregivers to manage their incurable blood cancer the way I have.

As you can imagine, continuous research and curation of this information is both a full-time and expensive job. While I’m happy to donate my own time I don’t have the resources to pay for the ongoing expenses incurred by PeopleBeatingCancer.

Multiple Myeloma Cancer Coaching fees combined with annual donor support provide the annual revenues needed to support the work of PeopleBeatingCancer.

Scroll down the page to ask a question or post a comment. I will reply to you ASAP.

Thank you for your time and attention.

David Emerson

  • MM Survivor
  • MM Coach
  • Director PeopleBeatingCancer

Recommended Reading:


My MM story-

I was diagnosed with MM in February of 1994. I underwent standard-of-care MM therapies from my diagnosis through September of 1997-

  • Surgery,
  • Radiation,
  • Surveillance,
  • Induction therapy,
  • ASCT-

 The photo above rightt is a chemotherapy regimen called adriamycin aka the red devil. Adiamycin has been shown to cause atrial fibrillation and cardiomyopathy.

Adiamycin is so toxic that the nurse had to wear latex gloves when she administered my chemotherapy…

I underwent antineoplaston therapy (ANP)  from 11/97-4/99 and achieved complete remission aka cancer-free status by early 1999. 

I am outlining the first five years of my life as a MM survivor explaining my conventional oncological experiences to demonstrate that I endured standard, aggressive therapies before I reached end-stage MM and began my search for non-conventional MM therapies.

By the end of the twentieth century I was both amazed that I was alive and cancer-free yet consumed with fear that I would relapse. After all, all MM survivors relapse eventually. Years of aggressive surgery, chemotherapy and radiation had produced little but extensive short, long-term and late stage side effects. 17 months of a supposedly quack therapy took me from end-stage MM to complete remission.

Painful experience had taught me that there must be more to managing multiple myeloma than what conventional oncology offered. 

At the same time, technological advancements such as email, online chat groups, social media, all where just beginning to demonstrate society-changing potential. Because the Internet had saved my life (my wife had found the Burzynski Research Institute online), I decided to launch a non-profit organization that provided cancer information and education via the Internet.

The Galen Foundation DBA PeopleBeatingCancer received 501c3 certification from the I.R.S. in June of 2004. PBC was a 100% donor-supported non-profit from 2004-2015. Since 2015 PBC has reduced annual donor support and increased fee-for-service revenue. As of 2020, PBC is about 60/40 fee-for-service to donor support.