Consistent with its Mission Statement to aid “one family at a time,” the Inga Kulberg Tesler Foundation intends to provide resources to families where a member is suffering from a neuroendocrine carcinoma – the rare form of neuroendocrine tumor that prematurely took Inga’s life.
Based on Inga’s experience with this destructive disease, we learned the hard way that, from diagnosis through treatment, the process is overwhelming. Going through that alone or without sufficient expert resources to assist in navigating the oftentimes complex worlds of medical insurance and hospital systems can leave patients unable to cope, without access to needed medications and care, financially devastated, and lacking the energy to properly fight the disease.
We can help.
Mankind is our business.
Access to Information
We plan to provide needed information to families struggling to cope with their NEC diagnosis. Neuroendocrine tumors (or NETs, which include a wide variety of cancers) are rare and resources providing information about NETs is limited. Neuroendocrine carcinomas (or NECs, which form a subset of the universe of NETs) are even rarer and helpful information is even more sparse. We plan to provide specific information that is tailored for NEC patients, ranging from information about the disease, to the most knowledgeable physicians and hospitals providing treatments, to the latest clinical trials, to dietary advice. The better patients are armed with information, the better they will be able to fight this insidious disease.
Transportation and Comfort
Surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, immunotherapy and other NEC treatments are rough. If one of our NEC patients is in need of transportation to and from a hospital or needs someone to sit with them during their treatment, we want to be in a position to be able to provide those services as needed.
Insurance and Care
Dealing with insurance companies and hospital systems is a challenge for experts in the field. Most patients are not lucky enough to have a relative with that expertise, let alone the time to fight the fights that need fighting. Physicians with cutting edge knowledge about treatments are in the best position to prescribe novel medications, such as new chemotherapy agents or immunotherapies. But our system puts insurance companies above doctors in the hierarchy of who decides what should be covered. There are ways to appeal adverse insurance company decisions, but navigating that process and gathering the information necessary for an appeal can cause life-threatening delays in treatment. We intend to provide assistance to NEC patients facing these complex issues. We want all NEC patients to be able to access the care they need when they need it.
Research
Billions of dollars have been donated and spent on cancer research. The barest fraction of those dollars have been devoted to research into NECs. If we are able to raise significant funds for the Inga Kulberg Tesler Foundation, we would intend to expand the scope of our mission to sponsor research and development efforts into ending NECs.
Providing this type of up to date information and services to NEC patients will require substantial funds.
Please Help Us Honor Inga's Memory
Support families suffering from NECs by giving generously to the Inga Kulberg Tesler Foundation