Mollie Biggane marks 14 years
of skin cancer prevention
The fourteenth annual Mollie Biggane fundraiser drew in large crowds from Garden City to support the local organization which has championed melanoma prevention, spearheaded by Maggie and Jack Biggane who lost their daughter Mollie at the age of 20 to this deadly cancer. Held at the Garden City Country Club, the event kicked off with 120 participants playing a charity golf game followed by dinner attended by 265 guests. Bids were placed for more than 200 donated items for the silent auction as well as 11 live auction items which included tickets to sports events, yachting around Manhattan, wine tastings and tickets to the Cher concert.
Melanoma cancer rates have increased 30 percent in the last 30 years and it is the most common form of cancer in young adults. If diagnosed and caught early, it can be cured but if missed, it can be the most lethal. The Bigganes have become soldiers in the war against this melanoma with their public service announcements on skin cancer recognition and prevention shown on the trains, subways, buses, taxi cabs and transmitted PSA radio announcements during the summer. Their mission has gone from local to regional and now national attention with the Surgeon General Boris Lushniak, who is also a dermatologist, applauding their efforts. The Bigganes had an opportunity to meet him this past summer when they carried their message to Washington. During the dinner, there was a taped message from Dr. Lushniak issuing a call to action on the part of parents, educators, and health workers to teach the public about skin cancer prevention.
Maggie Biggane discussed how their programs on education and prevention are expanding.
“We are doing an increased program with educating nurses at New York University, Mercy Medical Center, Winthrop University Hospital and North Shore LIJ. Nurses are the first ones to check people’s bodies out so if they see something they can say something to alert their patients. We are also doing an initiative with the physician’s assistants community. We are their designated charity this year for 2014 and when they have their annual convention we are bringing in a speaker from Sloane Kettering to talk about melanoma. We have also been gifted with an advertising initiative that we plan to roll out in 2015 for younger people who use tanning beds. We had an advertising agency seek us out to do a special project to alert younger people about the dangers of tanning beds.”
Jack Biggane explained what money raised at this event will be used toward.
“The funds are used for melanoma awareness and prevention with PSA announcements. Literature, educational symposiums that we do and we try to spread the information around.” He admitted that in spite of reaching out to local legislators, the response has been lacking.
“We have written to the local senators and congressmen but the response has not been great.”
New York Times best-selling author Nelson DeMille has attended the event many times.
“I have come every time since [it] started. My daughter knew Mollie Biggane in high school. The whole community came out initially when they first started this fundraiser and it has become the most successful local fundraiser that has gone bigger for a very good cause. There is so much that is not known about melanoma. I think this organization has raised awareness. This is like old home week. We all know each other here and everyone has some kind of association with either Jack, Maggie or Mollie.”
One of those community members who survived melanoma because of the awareness the Bigganes have raised about skin cancer was Tara Dehler Schmitt. As the guest speaker she explained how one day she felt a strange bump on the back of her head near the hairline. It turned out to be a malignant melanoma. She contacted the Bigganes who put her in touch with the doctors at Sloane Kettering who saved her life. She credited them for their efforts and had she not been made aware of this danger she may not be alive today.
The dinner of lobster and pasta ended with a lively bidding on the donated items with the always comical George Pappas raising the bar with his antics and helping boost the price of the items. The evening was not only successful but profitable as well and the funds will go towards spreading the word about skin cancer and its prevention. To learn more about the Mollie Fund or to give a donation, please go to molliesfund.org.
