RNS Cancer & Heart Fund marks 50 years of boosting health care

VENTNOR, N.J. - Fifty years ago, cancer was discussed in whispers. The stigma associated with having the disease made it a forbidden topic in "polite" company.

In her grief over the death of her daughter Ruth - a mother of four who died at 35 from melanoma - Rose Newman and her daughter's friends created a local organization that helped change that perception regionally.

Through innovative fund-raising, including the popular Show House at the Shore designers' showcase, the all-volunteer Ruth Newman Shapiro (RNS) Cancer & Heart Fund has raised more than $12 million since its founding in 1961.

It also has provided free mammograms to more than 37,000 women since 1993 in its mobile screening unit, said Franca Dowe, president of the Ventnor group.

"It's amazing to think that this organization and all that it has accomplished was all started by a group of 13 ladies over coffee who saw a need to get the discussion going and plant the seeds of hope," Dowe said last week, as she prepared for the fund's "In the Pink!" 50th anniversary luncheon.

The event honored the nonprofit's five surviving founders - Dorritt Linsk, a cousin of Ruth Shapiro's; and Shapiro's friends Bea Klein Newborn, Annette "Lucky" Rockower, Esther Gushner, and Carolyn Major - most of whom are now in their 80s.

In 1968, the group offered its first help to what was then Atlantic City Hospital. The fund bought an expensive, state-of-the-art cobalt therapy unit so patients in need of the treatment, a precursor to chemo and radiation, wouldn't have to travel to Philadelphia or New York, Dowe said.

From there, it picked up steam, and membership, attracting participation from the medical community at Atlantic City Hospital, as well as the Bacharach Institute for Rehabilitation in Galloway Township and Shore Memorial Hospital in Somers Point.

"When Ruth passed away, our small group's focus was on cancer. Our goal was to create a focus and awareness in the South Jersey community," said Newborn, Shapiro's childhood friend.

That mission - raising money for programs, services, and equipment for cancer patients - eventually was expanded to include assistance for those with heart disease.

Such organizations democratized the fight against cancer and other diseases, which had been monopolized by "lawmakers and laboratories," said Blair Horner, senior vice president of advocacy for the eastern division of the American Cancer Society.

"Cancer was a taboo topic not brought up in general circles of society. . . . It was scary, deadly," Horner said. "Groups like this changed that landscape and created a broader partnership with society" in tackling diseases.

The organization now has 1,000 volunteers and a 30-member board of trustees that includes Newman's granddaughter Leslie Levin. Newman died in 1995 at age 95.

The group's gifts have been numerous. It gave more than $1 million to help establish the RNS Regional Cancer Center and the Heart Institute at AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center and helped establish the RNS Cardiac Care Center and the RNS Radiation Therapy Unit at Shore Memorial Hospital. It also contributed heavily toward the Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation Center and the RNS Patient Transport Van Service at Bacharach Rehabilitation Center, as well as the Cancer Care Unit at Cape Regional Medical Center in Cape May Court House.

In the early 1990s, long before Martha Stewart and cable's HGTV popularized do-it-yourself home design, RNS launched its wildly successful Show House at the Shore fund-raiser. The ambitious, months-long project brought in dozens of top interior decorators to decorate a Shore manse in high style.

The group did not host a showcase this year in order to concentrate on its golden anniversary. It plans to present a special 20th-edition show house next summer, Dowe said.

The group's highest-profile contribution to the region may be the $740,000 Mobile Mammography Unit that travels Atlantic, Cape May, Cumberland, and Ocean Counties, providing free breast screenings to women who cannot afford them or whose health insurance won't pay for them.

The RNS foundation has had a tremendous impact on local hospitals' efforts to provide services for patients, said Jonathan Law, director of Medical Physics at AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center.

"Rose Newman turned a personal tragedy into a life mission of helping others," Law said. "Her vision and dedication led to the enhancement of services for our community. RNS has made a difference for patients, their families, and to us as care providers."