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Moody Foundation Donates $15 Million to Create New Comprehensive Breast Health Center at Parkland
Fundraising effort for new center reaches more than $30 million

DALLAS – The Moody Foundation has made a $15 million gift to help create a new comprehensive breast center at Parkland Health & Hospital System, Parkland Foundation and the Moody Foundation announced today. The lead gift to the fundraising effort will be recognized by naming the new center the Moody Breast Health Center at Parkland.

“For thousands of patients per year, the Moody Breast Health Center will speed up the time between screening, diagnosis and treatment. Faster treatment will help save more lives,” said Frances Moody-Dalhberg, Chairman and Executive Director, Moody Foundation. “The Moody Foundation is proud to help more breast cancer patients become breast cancer survivors.”

“We are grateful to the Moody Foundation for their generous support of Parkland, our patients and our mission to provide care for anyone in need,” said David E. Krause, President and Chief Executive Officer, Parkland Foundation. “Their transformational gift, along with more than $15 million from other generous donors throughout the community, creates an opportunity to increase the health and survival rate of breast cancer patients while also creating equity in breast health for everyone in Dallas County. We are so very appreciative of this outpouring of support.”

Each year Parkland provides breast health services for 30,000, and diagnoses and treats 400 patients with breast cancer, volumes that greatly exceed other hospitals. From screening and diagnosis to surgery and recovery, patients must currently access services at 10 separate locations. For patients, this can be difficult and frustrating, and results in late appointment starts, missed appointments and cancelled procedures. Time from screening to diagnosis and treatment determines survival for cancer patients.
“Every person wants to have the best technology and treatment options,” said Elle Moody, Trustee, Moody Foundation. “Cancer and other breast diseases can affect anyone, and at the Moody Foundation, we believe every patient should have access to excellent care.”

The new center will bring together breast health services under one roof, making screenings, treatment and follow-up care more convenient for patients. The new center will offer advanced tomosynthesis screening technology and expanded genetic counseling. Along with breast imaging, the center will house a multidisciplinary team working together in the same space, improving continuity of care and leading to better outcomes for patients while also providing a pathway to achieving national accreditation.

“The new comprehensive breast center will include more than breast imaging,” said W. Phil Evans, MD, FACR, FSBI, Clinical Professor and Division Chief, Breast Imaging, George and Carol Poston Professorship in Breast Cancer Research, and Director, UT Southwestern Center for Breast Care. “Surgical, medical and radiation oncologists, along with other support services, will all be working together in the same space and patients will be seen with much more continuity. Finding and treating breast cancer is a team effort. If you have the team isolated and in different places, it’s like trying to play a baseball game in several different stadiums.”

Parkland treats 20 percent of all breast cancer cases in Dallas County, and that number is expected to rise as the Health Care Advisory Board predicts a 15 percent increase in breast cancer incidence in Dallas County over the next five years. The patients cared for at Parkland are racially and ethnically diverse, often younger and diagnosed at later stages in their disease than national and regional norms. Most are uninsured or underinsured and rely on Parkland, the only public health system in Dallas County, for care and treatment.

“So many of our patients don’t have anywhere else to go to receive the life-saving care they need,” added Evans. “They need to have the opportunity to be screened like other women in the community, to have cancer found early, and to be treated for the best chance of survival. Due to advances in screening and treatment, the death rate from breast cancer has decreased by 40 percent since 1990. We want our patients to have this benefit.”

Parkland Foundation seeks to secure $40 million in philanthropic support to create the new center. To date, more than $30 million has been raised through the leadership of Nancy Halbreich and Carol Seay. Donors contributing $100,000 or more to the fundraising effort include:
Anonymous
Mr. and Mrs. Peter Bartholow
The Boone Family Foundation
The Dallas Foundation
The Eugene McDermott Foundation
Dr. Phil and Laurie Evans
Hoblitzelle Foundation
Marguerite Hoffman
The Horchow Family
Joe M. and Doris R. Dealey Family Foundation
Mr. and Mrs. David B. Miller
The Moody Foundation
Parkland Health & Hospital System Auxiliary
Margot and Ross Perot
Mrs. Evelyn P. Rose
Bill and Gay Solomon
The Theodore and Beulah Beasley Foundation, Inc.
Vin and Caren Prothro Foundation
Jean and Tom Walter

To learn more about the new comprehensive breast center or to make a gift, please contact Parkland Foundation at 214-266-2000 or visit www.IStandforParkland.org.

About the Moody Foundation
The Moody Foundation was established by W.L. Moody, Jr. and Libbie Shearn Moody in 1942 to share their good fortune and make a difference in the lives of the people of Texas. Since then, the Moody Foundation has made $1.5 billion in grants throughout the state to organizations that have educated, healed, nurtured and inspired generations of Texans. Learn more at MoodyF.org.

About Parkland Foundation
Parkland Foundation is dedicated to securing substantial financial resources that advance the goals of Parkland Health & Hospital System. Through this support, Parkland is able to extend its services to reach more people in need and enhance the quality of care available to them.