The Breast Cancer Coalition of Rochester is mourning the loss of one of its co-founders.
Sylvia Cappellino died Aug. 8 in Tennessee among family, the organization announced.
Cappellino started the coalition in 1997 after being diagnosed with breast cancer herself a few years earlier.
She and seven other women created a support group to help those living with the disease. The nonprofit has since expanded to advocacy, education and providing research grants.
“She embodies kind of what I call the coalition culture, which is the kindness, the listening, the supporting,” said Christina Thompson, executive director of BCCR.
Thompson remembers Cappellino as a changemaker.
“Her personality, her kind spirit, is what brought people together, and we're still doing it now,” Thompson said.
Cappellino’s cause of death was not released, but Thompson said that to her knowledge, it was not breast cancer-related.
Up to her last days, Cappellino was working on legislation to improve the care of breast cancer patients, Thompson said.
The Metastatic Breast Cancer Access to Care Act, if passed, would waive the length of time individuals with metastatic breast cancer must wait to receive Social Security disability and Medicare income.
“She was just a powerhouse, and the kind of person that was doing the mission till the end,” Thompson said.
There will be two memorial services for Cappellino, Thompson said — one in Rochester and the other in Tennessee.
Those dates have not yet been released.
