'Casino' event to fight breast cancer

'Luck for the Ladies' night is sold out

RALEIGH -- There's no shortage of publicity about breast cancer. October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. The Race for the Cure runs through cities across America, raising money and consciousness.

The Sisko Foundation, like scores of other breast cancer organizations, raises money in its home community. But unlike the others, it disburses locally, too. Since 2000, it has given away $200,000, all in the Triangle.

Tonight, Sisko is holding a casino night at a 17,000-square-foot home in North Raleigh. The host built many of his own gaming tables and bought others for the event.

Because gambling is illegal in North Carolina, no money will change hands. Instead, $100 per person gets you hors d'oeuvres, beer, wine and 20 prepaid tickets to use at the casino. Winners get prizes instead of cash payouts.

At a time when many people are cutting back, Luck for the Ladies night is sold out. More than 200 people interested in blackjack and breast cancer will attend the event.

The Sisko Foundation began eight years ago when four friends -- two with cancer -- sat down at Michelle Siler's kitchen table with blank pieces of paper to brainstorm ways to battle breast cancer.

Sisko -- which is Siler's maiden name -- contributes $5,000 to Rex Hospital's mobile mammography unit each year and has given $20,000 to Neil Spector, a cancer researcher at Duke University.

The foundation also underwrites the cost of prostheses for uninsured women who have had mastectomies. This year alone, they allocated $7,000 for prostheses, much of it raised with the help of the Raleigh Racquet Club.

Facing the losses

Upon diagnosis, breast cancer victims face loss: loss of hair and the contents of their stomachs from chemotherapy, their breasts to surgery, and possibly their lives. If they don't choose or can't afford reconstruction, where their breast was is now just empty space. If they have no insurance, there's often no way to pay for a prosthesis.

So, when they walk into a store such as Lovely Lady in Cary, anxious about being able to afford one, owner Darlene Gardner is able to put them at ease with four words.

"We have a fund," she says.

When they hear that, relief floods over them. "They get this look on their faces," she said. "I can't put it into words."

This year, Lovely Lady has helped five uninsured or underinsured women -- four in Smithfield, one in Cary -- obtain prostheses paid for by the Sisko Foundation. An average prosthesis costs about $250.

United to fight cancer

Siler found a lump in her breast in 1999. Not long after, she heard that a woman eight houses away also had learned she had breast cancer. Siler put a note in Susan Barry's mailbox, and they became friends with a common enemy.

They attended the Race for the Cure together, two bald shiny heads. Of 53 women on a bus, Siler counted nine wearing pink survivor hats. That's too many, she thought.

The friendship between Siler and Barry was fortuitous in more ways than one. Barry, a lawyer, knew how to secure nonprofit status for an organization. "I do this for a living," Barry said.

Together with Siler, Barry helped set up Sisko Foundation.

A nine-year survivor, Barry moved to California four years ago. It was there that she learned her cancer had returned. She died April 10. Tonight's casino night will be held in her memory.