The Breast Cancer Research Stamp

Posted October 1, 2009, 7:54 am in Breast
Credit Susan Whigham

The Breast Cancer Research Stamp is a first-class investment you can make just for the change in your pocket.

The space may be small, but the dividends are huge: Helping fund the fight against breast cancer, which is estimated to give rise to 194,280 new cases in 2009, according to the American Cancer Society.

Sales of the stamp have raised $67.6 million for breast cancer research since it first went on sale in 1998, says Elaine Pancake, customer relations coordinator for the United States Postal Service in Orlando.

“Stamp sales fund important research and help to build awareness …. It might remind someone to schedule their mammogram and encourage all to know the signs and to seek medical advice early should they appear,” says Pancake.

The stamp was illustrated by Whitney Sherman of Baltimore, Md., and designed by Ethel Kessler, who won her battle with breast cancer in 1994.

Kessler, of Bethesda, Md., has tackled a range of topics-by-stamp: American choreography, Chinese New Year and Alzheimer’s disease.

“Stamps are not just a reduction of a larger image,” she said in a 2008 interview with The Washington Post. “It becomes a new, iconic image itself.”

Pancake says the stamp features a line drawing of a female figure, suggesting a “goddess of the hunt or fight.” The phrase “FUND THE FIGHT, FIND A CURE” appears flowing left to right across the stamp in a circular pattern, outlining where the figure’s right breast would be.

The current price of the breast cancer research stamp is 55 cents (current first-class postage is 44 cents), and the value equals the one-ounce letter rate, says Pancake.

And here is something you may not know: Each breast cancer research stamp purchased entitles the buyer to an 11-cent write-off on income tax, Pancake says. The USPS receipt issued at the time of purchase indicates the number of breast cancer stamps bought and is accepted as proof of donation by tax authorities, Pancake says.

The money raised benefits breast cancer research at the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Defense. By law, 70 percent of the net amount raised is given to NIH and 30 percent to the Department of Defense.