Help us get people to the care they need when it matters
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Help Us Get People to Life-Saving Care
My name is Francesca LoPorto-Brandow, and I’m a stage 4 non-Hodgkin lymphoma survivor. I was diagnosed in October 2020, just four months after giving birth to my youngest son. My oldest was only five at the time.
Cancer has deeply impacted my family. My mother and aunt are both breast cancer survivors. My father passed away in 2022 from multiple myeloma. And my husband lives with a rare blood cancer called Essential Thrombocythemia (an MPN).
Each time one of us was diagnosed, we found ourselves driving back and forth to New York City or Boston for care, sometimes daily. During my father's final three months of life, we drove nearly 16,000 miles just trying to get him the care he needed.
And all I could think was:
What happens to the people who don’t have someone to drive them?
Do they give up?
That heartbreaking question is what led me to create two initiatives:
The Flutter Express– a transportation service that eliminates access barriers for people traveling to world-renowned care in NYC and Boston.
Flutter Club, inc. – a 100% volunteer-powered 501(c)(3) nonprofit that provides financial travel assistance and care packages for patients and their loved ones.
Today, I’m asking for your help.
We urgently need to raise $15,000 for Flutter Club, to support patients and families who are already waiting. We currently have more applicants than available funding, and these rides are often the difference between receiving life-saving care or going without.
Your donation will go directly toward covering roundtrip transportation on The Flutter Express and care packages for people from our community (or potentially your neighbor, friend, family member) that are facing cancer and other critical illnesses, fertility needs, developmental disabilities, and second medical opinions.
A gift of $185 covers a full roundtrip ticket for a healthcare rider and their companion, helping them reach world-renowned Healthcare Centers of Excellence in New York City and Boston, including:
Boston Children’s Hospital
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK) Cancer Center
NYP–Weill Cornell Medical Center
Brigham and Women’s Hospital
The Hospital for Special Surgery
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Every dollar helps. Your generosity has the power to change a life.
The people we’re helping are real, and their needs are urgent:
- Two brothers, just 3 and 5 years old that need to get to MSK kids for care
- A local father with pancreatic cancer in a clinical trial, he can’t miss even one ride or he’ll be disqualified.
- A breast cancer patient who needs 7–10 roundtrips to Boston for surgery and reconstruction.
- A mother with a rare cancer traveling to NYC more than 12 times for the only care available.
- A woman referred by her local doctor to seek answers in NYC after being unable to get a diagnosis at home.
- A young person needing a specialized surgery that can only be done in Boston.
These are only a few of the many applicants we have.
Please consider supporting Flutter Club, inc. and helping us keep this mission moving. No one should ever miss a critical appointment because they can’t get there, and our community deserves a life-line to care when it matters most.
With heartfelt thanks and so much gratitude,
Francesca LoPorto-Brandow
Founder, The Flutter Express & Flutter Club, inc.
Learn more at: www.flutterclub.com
Organiser
Francesca LoPorto-Brandow
Organiser
East Greenbush, NY