BVI Cancer Society says it's starved of funds while need grows

The BVI Cancer Society is receiving smaller government funding than any other non-profit group in the territory, its leader said this week, even as demand from patients and their families continues to climb.

Ms Gloria A. Fahie, the Society's president and a cancer survivor herself, raised the concern while speaking at 5th District Dialogues on October 25. She explained that the organisation has managed to keep operating by leaning on fundraising efforts, advocacy work, and the dedication of her staff to serve people living with cancer.

"The government gave us a small subvention, very tiny," Ms Fahie said. "Out of all the non-profit organisations, we get the lowest subvention."

Despite the financial squeeze, the Society has continued its work without scaling back. Ms Fahie described her strategy for making limited resources stretch: "I could take a dollar and make it into $1,000, and I could take $1,000 and make it into $300,000, because I'm out there."

She emphasised that pausing operations is not an option. "Cancer doesn't pause. The BVI Cancer Society cannot afford to pause either," Ms Fahie said.

The organisation serves all cancer patients who meet eligibility requirements and provide the necessary paperwork, regardless of race, ethnicity or background. Ms Fahie said the Society will persist in its fundraising and push for increased backing as it pursues its mission to lessen cancer's toll on the Virgin Islands.

"We're going to keep going and going and going until, maybe and hopefully one day, this disease would be eradicated," she said.

Community organisations in the BVI that receive government support must submit audited financial statements and annual reports to qualify for funding.