New Day Foundation for Families

New Day’s vision is to create a world where no family experiences the financial and emotional burden of cancer alone.

The needs and survival of cancer patients and their families is our top priority. No family should fight cancer alone or make unthinkable choices between medical treatment and providing basic necessities. New Day works with hospitals across the state of Michigan to help families reach the other side of cancer by overcoming financial toxicity, a harmful side effect that creates significant barriers to treatment and healing.

The COVID-19 pandemic offers a glimpse into the isolation, fear and financial uncertainty that consumes cancer patients and their families daily. Long after our global crisis resolves, the challenges faced by the cancer community will remain. Our mission has been illuminated by this pandemic, not only creating awareness and understanding for what we’ve been doing for 12 years, but also revealing our preparedness and protocols to quickly address financial and emotional burdens caused by a medical crisis.

Cancer Related Financial Toxicity (CRFT) is most often caused by inability to work and loss of income due to a cancer diagnosis, and rising expenses including high deductibles, medical bills, high-cost prescription drugs and transportation. CRFT directly impacts life expectancy and quality of life for cancer patients and their families, regardless of socio-economic status.

New Day provides financial assistance for living expenses and offers free professional counseling services for emotional support. This program model is an effective anchor for our mission. We also provide financial navigation services. New Day uses a cutting-edge technology platform to predict financial burden in the early stages of a diagnosis and provide valuable resources to offset that burden.

Families eligible for financial assistance from New Day must:
• have a pediatric or adult cancer patient in active treatment
• have children age 18 and under living in the home
• be represented by a health care professional/social worker
• demonstrate financial hardship (most often associated with a loss of income due to a cancer diagnosis)