Our Beginning

A significant gap between cancer patients and access to information and resources was realized by our Founders…

Blaire and Richard Larson founded Cancer Services of New Mexico after serving as caregivers for a close family member who was diagnosed with cancer. Richard, who is both an MD and PhD, had spent most of his career to that point diagnosing cancers and ran one of the largest cancer research labs in New Mexico. Yet, they found the experience of navigating the cancer journey overwhelming and were struck by the limited resources available to help patients and their loved ones through the cancer process. They also realized how much more difficult things were for families that didn’t have access to the knowledge and resources that they did.From the start, the Larsons had two goals:

To develop programs and services that filled gaps no one else was addressing
To create an organization with minimal overhead costs, so the vast majority of funds raised could go directly to serving those in need.

Cancer Services of New Mexico has been very successful in both respects. Today, over 1,200 New Mexicans coping with cancer take advantage of our unique, free programs each year. And, with no physical office or full-time staff, we are able to devote over 95% of funds raised to delivering programs.