North Fork Breast Health Coalition

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North Fork Breast Health Coalition

Contact information, map and directions, contact form, opening hours, services, ratings, photos, videos and announcements from North Fork Breast Health Coalition, 185 Old Country Road, Ste 6, Riverhead, NY.

💗 The North Fork Breast Health Coalition supports breast cancer patients, survivors & thrivers with care, education, and hope through programs, services, and community events.

06/18/2026

Pink hats.

Parade floats.

Community spirit.

Let’s go! 🇺🇸💗

The North Fork Breast Health Coalition is joining the Southold 250th Parade on Saturday, July 4, 2026 at 12:00 PM, and we want you with us.

We’re looking for volunteers to help bring our float to life and walk with us in the parade. Come decorate, wave, cheer, celebrate, and help us fill the parade route with pink, pride, and support for our breast health community.

Every participant will receive a commemorative NFBHC hat to wear in the parade.

Bring a friend. Bring your family. Bring your North Fork spirit.

Want to join us?

Comment below, RSVP to [email protected] or call 631-208-8889

06/17/2026

We are a little late sharing our June services, but there is still so much support available for North Fork Breast Health Coalition members. 💗

These services are here to support our members through treatment, recovery, survivorship, and everything in between.

We are grateful to continue offering these resources to our North Fork community and to the wonderful providers who share their time and care with our members.

Please remember that our service flyers are also sent by email, and as always, members are welcome to contact the office or reach out directly to our service providers with any questions.

06/07/2026

Today, on National Cancer Survivors Day, we celebrate something extraordinary.

Not just survival.

👉The courage it takes to keep going when life changes in an instant.

👉The strength it takes to face uncertainty and find hope anyway.

👉The resilience it takes to show up for treatments, appointments, family, work, and yourself, even on the hardest days.

Cancer survivors are mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, friends, neighbors, and colleagues. They are the people who remind us what determination, grace, and perseverance truly look like.

Today, we honor every survivor's journey. The milestones, the setbacks, the victories, the lessons, and the incredible strength found along the way.

We also recognize the caregivers, family members, friends, healthcare professionals, and supporters who walk beside them, offering love, encouragement, and hope when it is needed most.

To every survivor in our community and beyond:

💖 Your story matters.

💖 Your strength inspires.

💖 Your courage gives hope to others.

Here's to the milestones reached, the memories made, and the days still ahead. 💗

06/04/2026

We thought we were done. But then we realized we hadn't introduced the woman who turned her own breast cancer diagnosis during the pandemic into a brand new purpose.

We couldn't let that story go untold!

💖 Meet BeeJay Ferucci.

In 2020, in the middle of a global pandemic, BeeJay Ferucci was diagnosed with breast cancer. The world was already frightening and isolating for everyone. For BeeJay, it was one of the lowest points of her life. But in the middle of that darkness, she found the North Fork Breast Health Coalition. And the coalition found her right back.

💖 At a time when so much felt uncertain, NFBHC showed up for BeeJay with the support, the resources, and the human connection that reminded her she was not alone. Through her trials and tribulations, she found the light at the end of the tunnel. And when she reached it, she didn't walk away. She turned around and decided to be that light for someone else.

She got involved. She made new friends. She found new purpose. And she never looked back.

A retired second grade teacher, BeeJay spent decades nurturing young minds. Now she brings that same heart to everything she does at NFBHC.

💖 As an At-Large Director and Raffle Chair for our Annual Pink Pearl Gala, BeeJay is the person who makes one of our most beloved fundraising traditions possible year after year. She reaches out to local businesses and community members, coordinates donations, and curates the gift baskets that help fund the Keri Lynn Stromski Stage IV Breast Cancer Research and Support Fund.

It sounds like a logistics role. But anyone who knows BeeJay knows it is so much more than that. Every basket she builds is an act of love. Every dollar raised through that raffle is a testament to what happens when someone decides to turn their pain into purpose.

💖 She came to us as a patient. She stayed as a volunteer. She became a board member. And somewhere along the way, this community became her people.

That is the North Fork Breast Health Coalition at its very best.

👇 This woman deserves ALL the love.

Drop a 💗 below and show BeeJay just how much this community appreciates her!

06/03/2026

We talk about our mothers. Our sisters. Our daughters. Our friends. We rally around them, we wear pink for them, we walk miles for them. We talk about early detection, self-exams, mammograms, and fighting with everything we've got.

💙 But today, for Men's Health Month, we need to make room in that conversation for the men too.

Because yes. Men get breast cancer.

It doesn't get talked about enough. It doesn't get the awareness campaigns, the pink ribbons, or the spotlight it deserves. And because of that silence, too many men are suffering without answers, without support, and without a community that sees them.

In 2026, about 2,670 men will be diagnosed with breast cancer in the United States, and around 530 will die from it. These are our fathers, our brothers, our uncles, our sons. And most of them never saw it coming because no one ever told them to look.

Men are more likely to be diagnosed at an advanced stage because they aren't routinely screened and many don't know that breast cancer is something they need to watch for.

They feel a lump and they wait.

They notice a change and they brush it off. Because the world never told them this could happen to them.

That silence costs lives. And we refuse to stay silent.

Know what to look for:

🔹 A lump or thickening near the ni**le or armpit

🔹 Changes in the ni**le, including discharge

🔹 Skin changes on the chest such as redness or unusual texture

🔹 Any unexplained swelling in or around the breast area

Check on the men in your life the same way they check on you.

Encourage them to speak up when something doesn't feel right.

Remind them that going to the doctor is strength.

Remind them that asking for help is not weakness. It is survival.

This conversation has always included everyone. Let's make sure everyone knows it. 💙

06/03/2026

We saved one of the most beautiful stories for last.

Vanie Tuthill has been connected to the North Fork Breast Health Coalition since the very beginning. She was friends with founders Ann Cotten-DeGrasse and the late Antonio DeGrasse, attended functions, and donated when she could. She knew the coalition was doing important work. She just didn't know yet how personally important it would become.

💖 In 2016, her daughter Bernadette was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 42. Vanie sat in every consultation, every biopsy appointment, every moment she could. She played pickleball between appointments to burn off the anxiety. And she prayed she could take her daughter's place.

"I was saying to myself, I wish I would go through this so my daughter didn't have to."

A friend connected Bernadette to the coalition. The grant. The programs. The support. It changed everything.

💖 Then in 2021, about eight months after her last mammogram, Vanie was doing a self-exam when she found something. At age 71, she was diagnosed with Stage 2A breast cancer, cancer that had spread to her lymph nodes. Now it was Bernadette sitting beside her mother in every appointment, wishing she could trade places.

Both women fought.
Both women won.

💖 And both women joined this board, because when you've been on the receiving end of this community's love and support, the only thing left to do is give it back.

As an At-Large Director, Vanie brings something to this board that cannot be taught and cannot be manufactured. She has lived this. She has felt the fear, leaned on this community, and come out the other side. And because of that, there is no task too small, no ask too big, and no moment she won't show up for. She is simply always there, always willing, always ready to help. Because she knows firsthand what it means to need this organization, and she never wants anyone to feel alone in that moment.

"The coalition has been a super resource. It provided support and provided comfort. Even though doctors give you information, you never get the whole story."

Vanie, Bernadette, thank you for sharing your story. Thank you for turning the hardest chapters of your your lives into fuel for this mission.

You are the reason we do this. 💕

👇 Drop a 💗 to close out this incredible series and share it with someone who might need to know we're here!

06/03/2026

There are moments when healing looks like doing.

And there are moments when healing looks like simply being.

👉 Join us for a gentle evening of Crystal Singing Bowls and Jin Shin Jyutsu, led by Maria Maier and Susan Remkus Denis and created especially for breast cancer thrivers and survivors.

The soothing vibrations of crystal singing bowls and the gentle healing art of Jin Shin Jyutsu can help create a sense of calm, relaxation, and restoration while offering a peaceful space to pause, breathe, and reconnect with yourself.

Whether you are newly diagnosed, in treatment, recovering, or years beyond your journey, this evening is an opportunity to nurture your body, mind, and spirit in a supportive environment.

✨ Crystal Singing Bowls & Jin Shin Jyutsu Workshop

📅 Thursday, June 11
🕡 6:30 PM

📍 North Fork Breast Health Coalition
185 Old Country Road, Suite 6
Riverhead, NY

📞 631-208-8889

Space is limited and advance registration is encouraged.

💖 Tag a breast cancer thriver or survivor who could use an evening of rest, renewal, and self-care.

We hope to see you there!

06/01/2026

💗 What's the best piece of advice you've ever been given?

As we welcome June and the unofficial start of summer on the North Fork, we thought it would be fun to start the month with a little wisdom from our community.

You know the kind of advice we're talking about.

The words someone shared years ago that still pop into your head when you need them most.

Maybe it came from a parent, grandparent, teacher, friend, neighbor, or someone you met for only a brief moment.

Sometimes the simplest advice can stay with us for a lifetime.

We'll start:

✨ "Don't borrow worry from tomorrow."

It's a gentle reminder to focus on today, appreciate what's right in front of us, and not let tomorrow steal today's joy.

Now it's your turn.

💭 What's the best piece of advice you've ever been given?

Share it in the comments below.

Who knows?

Your words might be exactly what someone else in our community needs to hear today.

Let's fill this comment section with encouragement, wisdom, laughter, and life lessons worth passing on.

Here's to a June filled with sunshine, connection, kindness, and a little inspiration from one another.

👇 Drop your favorite piece of advice below!

05/30/2026

Meet Susan Ruffini 💖

She is the reason we fight Stage 4 the way we do.

Susan Ruffini has given more to this organization than most people know. She served as President of the North Fork Breast Health Coalition, helping build it into the powerhouse it is today.

She launched the Pink Pearl Spirit Award to honor the legacy of the late Pearl Philindas, the beloved past president the gala is named for. She has been the face, the voice, and the heart of this mission for years.

And she's done all of it while living with breast cancer herself.

Susan was first diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer after a routine mammogram in 2006. She fought. She won. She went on to lead this organization with everything she had for years after. Then, in 2019 thirteen years later, an MRI revealed a recurrence. Stage 4.

And Susan Ruffini kept showing up.

"We know it's working because my PET scans are showing, at this point, which, I'm very lucky. not really lucky, I'm blessed that there is no evidence of active disease."

Not lucky. Blessed. That distinction says everything about who Susan is.

Today she serves as an At-Large Director and outreach committee member, still in the room, still pushing, still reminding every single one of us exactly why the Stage IV fund exists, why integrative care matters, and why this community cannot afford to stop fighting.

She isn't just a survivor. She's the embodiment of our mission.

We are honored to have you on this board, Susan. Always.

Thank you for all that you have donenand continue to do 💖

Address

185 Old Country Road, Ste 6
Riverhead, NY
11901

Website

http://www.northforkbreasthealth.org/

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