About Us
Who we are
Welcome to the official website for the Star Foundation! We are so glad you have taken interest in supporting our foundation! The Star foundation is a newly found non-profit founded in Tennessee. The Star Foundation is here to assist and raise funds for cancer patients who need help with medical costs during their diagnosis. Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the United States and each year more than 1.6 million people are diagnosed with cancer. The costs of cancer care is expected to rise to $174 billion by 2020. As there are over 200 types and subtypes of cancer, I firmly believe that cancer research needs to continue until a cure can be found. This foundation is here to help build a community that cares for cancer as much as we do! Together we can help cancer patients no longer fear cancer and the expense behind the treatments!
What we do
Our mission is to reach out into communities across Tennessee to help those patients that need financial assistance. Medical costs for cancer during an individuals cancer treatments can cost anywhere between $10,000-$200,000.
Our goal is to find those patients that are financially struggling and need support. We cater each donation to that patients needs. We want to support as many Tennessee residents as possible so we can lower the death rate in our state. Approximately 47,000 people in Tennessee alone are diagnosed each year. We host several fundraisers a year so we can funds to donate to those who we find that need these funds.
Why We do what we do
Our founder Tera Townsend founded this
non-profit due to her personal connection. Growing up she was always involved with other cancer supporting non-profits such as American Cancer Society, Relay for Life, St. Jude Hospitals, Children's Miracle Networks, & Make A Wish Foundation. As Tera grew older she realized she wanted to personally make a difference in others lives that suffer to this disease. This is when she founded The Star Foundation back in 2020. The foundation started very small as she did small fundraisers throughout the year to target people in the cancer community. She is slowly growing this foundation from a small local county foundation to a statewide organization.
Our Personal Connection
The Townsend family has had 16 members in their family with cancer just in Tera's lifetime. Fourteen of these patients have perished to this horrible disease. Tera has had very close family members with cancer. Her first memory of cancer was when he was only three years old when her grandfather was a survivor to prostate cancer. She joined him at relay for life every year in the survivor section and walked the survivor walk with him as her grandfather, Richard Flippin, and her were very close growing up. In 2010 Richard was diagnosed with brain cancer and he passed due to this type of cancer. Richard's wife, Margaret Flippin and Tera's grandmother, was later diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2020 and with her other medical history and dementia there was no medical assistance doctors could give her. Margaret later passed in early 2021.
Only a month after Margaret was diagnosed Tera's father, Terry Townsend, was diagnosed with an early stage of CLL, Chronic Lymphcotic Leukemia. Terry is still currently fighting CLL but it is a slow staging cancer thankfully and is not progressing currently. Back in November 2021 our family had received the worst news to come regarding cancer. Tera's nephew, Brody Townsend, had just been diagnosed with stage 4 DIPG, a rare type of cancerous brain tumor. Brody fought a brave fight till the end. Brody was taken care of by the wonderful staff at St. Jude in Memphis and also at the children's hospital in Seattle, Washington. Brody had rounds of radiation at St. Jude and also was in clinical trials with the T cell trials in Washington. Only in July of 2022 did we loose Brody at age 9. This has been one of the most heart-tearing cancer experiences my family has gone through. Becuase of Tera's personal experiences with cancer, she will not stop till she can help as many as possible. Tera believes that no one deserves to loose anyone to cancer and she has made it her life mission to serve others in the same situations she has seen her entire life.
