Abbeville's Levy family establishes foundation to help residents deal with cancer

Battling cancer is never easy. It puts a strain on your health, family, friends, and your finances. The Levy Cancer Foundation has been set up at Abbeville General Hospital to help those in financial need in hopes of making the battle with cancer a little easier.
The Levy Cancer Foundation, named after husband and wife Jo and Irvin Levy, who both died of cancer, is recently established to offer financial assistance to those who have cancer in Vermilion Parish.
Cassie Levy, one of the Levys’ daughter, said the brain-child of the foundation was her mother before she passed away. In Cassie’s Houston apartment, the two threw out ideas on how to help others who have cancer. She said her mother, wanted her life to have meaning.
Both liked the idea of creating a foundation to help families whose loved ones are battling cancer.
Not long after that conversation, Jo passed away, and her daughter did not waste anytime granting her mother’s wish. She knew where to turn for help - Abbeville General Hospital.
Jo had been an Abbeville General board member for 20 years, and she also volunteered in the hospital up until her death in Abbeville General Hospital.
With the help of Ray Landry, the CEO at Abbeville General, Cassie and Abbville General Hospital established the “Levy Cancer Foundation.”
The foundation is to help families with finances like paying for gas to make sure they are able to get a family member back and forth to radiation treatment. While in the hospital, to make sure a family member has money to eat, the foundation can give a family member a voucher to eat in a restaurant or hospital.
“We want to help a family as much as we can,” said Cassie. “Fighting cancer is never easy. By helping, like getting them to treatment or supplying the family with something, can take the burden off of you. The foundation is here to help.”
The mission statement for the Levy Foundation is, “Treating cancer close to home.”
Part of setting up a foundation is creating the Levy Foundation Board members. The board members are who decide how to distribute the money to cancer patients.
Cassie is the chairman, and Landry is the president.
The rest of the board members are Vansessa Hebert, Sarah Briggs, Thomas Vallot, Dr. Corbett LeBeouf, Dr. Myriam Hutchinson, Registered Nurse Shannon Broussard, Janice Stakes, Sandy Vaughn and Diane Meaux Broussard.
On Wednesday at Abbeville General, a special program was held to unveil a special wall on the first floor of the hospital near the Emergency Room. Landry and Cassie pulled down the sheet. On the wall are pictures of the board members of the Levy Foundation and a picture of Jo and Irvin together.
“They would like this,” said Cassie. “They are back together again.”
If anyone is looking to donate to the non-profit foundation, they can send a check to: Levy Cancer Foundation, P.O. Box 2138, Abbeville, La. 70510. They can also go online to www.abbgen.net.