U.S. Postal Service Campaign to Help Fund Cancer Research with a Breast Cancer Stamp-Truth!
Summary of eRumor:
You are encouraged to go to the Post Office and purchase “Fund the Cure” stamps that will be benefiting research on breast cancer.
The Truth:
This is true.
The postal stamp for fighting breast cancer was the nation’s first fund-raising stamp, according to the U.S. Postal Service. It was issued in 1999. The U.S.P.S. announced in 2002 that the cost of the stamp was being raised from 40-cents to 45-cents and that the stamp would be on sale until at least December, 2003. This is what the U.S.P.S. calls a “semipostal stamp,” meaning that it is priced above the normal cost of First-Class postage with the net proceeds going to a worthy cause. In the case of the breast cancer stamp, 30 percent of the net proceeds goes to the Medical Research program of the Department of Defense (for breast cancer research). Seventy percent goes to the U.S. National Institutes of Health.