An Arizona mother battling breast cancer says a donation from a soda chain's annual fundraiser eased the financial strain of surgery, transfusions and targeted gene therapies, freeing her to focus on healing and her daughter instead of mounting bills. Erin Albright, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2023, is one of the women who has benefited from Swig's Save the Cups campaign, which is racing toward a $650,000 fundraising goal before it wraps up next Saturday, Oct. 10.
According to FOX 10 Phoenix, the mounting costs of Albright's treatment eased once she received the Save the Cups donation, allowing her to focus on her health, her healing, and spending time with her daughter. Albright described the relief in stark terms, saying the medical debt relief was everything. Swig, a dirty soda company that operates locations across the country, launched the annual campaign to help women fighting breast cancer pay their medical bills.
How the Fundraiser Works
Customers can pitch in by purchasing promotional merchandise, including tumblers, hoodies and air fresheners, the station's report notes. Shoppers can also round up their order totals at the drive-thru to contribute directly to the cause. Swig is also currently seeking nominations for women fighting breast cancer who need financial assistance with treatment, per the same account.
The 2026 push, which runs from Sept. 14 through Oct. 10, carries a $650,000 goal, according to Swig's own campaign page. Save the Cups was founded in 2020 to help ease the financial burden of treatment for women fighting breast cancer, and the program has grown substantially since then.
A Founder's Own Cancer Fight
Swig founder Nicole Robison has said she was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 37 before starting the company, and that an anonymous donor paid all of her medical bills during treatment — an experience she has cited as the inspiration behind the campaign. Separately, other reporting from UPR identifies the company's founder as Nicole Tanner, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2009 at age 37; the discrepancy between the two names has not been resolved. Robison has said small acts of kindness can help people, and she encourages others to consider something as simple as buying someone's drink.
Figures on the campaign's overall impact vary slightly depending on the source. FOX 10 Phoenix reports the campaign has raised nearly $2 million and helped about 170 women over the years, while a release carried by PR Newswire put the total, as of Sept. 14, at nearly $2 million supporting 169 women since 2020. Robison has said she hopes this year's campaign will blow past the $2 million mark and surpass 200 women helped in total.
Year-Over-Year Growth
The campaign's totals have climbed steadily since its launch. In 2024, the drive raised more than $364,000, pushing its five-year total past $1 million, according to a press release from LHM. Last year's campaign brought in $550,000, as reported by KSL. After the 2023 campaign, Swig was able to help 30 women, according to QSR Magazine, which also noted the chain grew from 61 stores at the start of 2024 to a planned 104 stores across 14 states by year's end.
Swig now operates more than 170 locations across 17 states, per the PR Newswire release. Individual recipients have received varying amounts of support in past years; in 2021, a three-person panel reviewed applications and awarded between $5,000 and $20,000 per recipient, according to KUTV, which also reported that a dollar from every Founder and Unbreakable drink sold that October went toward the campaign. A year earlier, the inaugural October 2020 push raised more than $161,000, the station noted, with organizers setting a goal of topping $175,000 the following year.
As the 2026 deadline approaches, Robison has urged women to keep up with mammograms and to advocate for their own health, a message she has tied directly to her own experience with the disease. For Albright, the campaign's reach became personal — proof, in her telling, that a chain known for sodas and small gestures could make a measurable difference for someone in the middle of a cancer fight.
