Cathy Backus, Founder and President of Send Me On Vacation (SMOV), a 501(C)(3) charity, had the vision of using the concept of vacation rejuvenation to support emotional healing for breast cancer survivors who have recently battled cancer.

Mrs. Backus started her career as the Director of Club Med Sales. After 9 years working for a membership vacation organization, she developed a travel insurance product for vacationers. She spent 15 years providing high quality branded vacation ownership insurance to the industry. She left her position as Vice President of VacationGuard, a travel insurance company, to commit all her time to SMOV. Wherever her business took her, she took SMOV along for the ride in recruiting sponsors for the organization.

Send Me On Vacation is an all volunteer, resource driven charity. Funds are primarily raised through events and donated resources. SMOV has raised sufficient funds to send over 400 survivors and their families on healing vacations. Send Me On Vacation serves breast cancer survivors in 26 countries.

Ms. Backus has brought SMOV to national prominence in the last 11 years. Prior to launching SMOV, she created and managed a program for Girls Inc. called College-ship, where she raised funding to send under-served young women to college outside of their home town.

The beauty of Cathy is that she has the ability to energize people from every walk of life throughout and truly is a woman who makes a difference in the lives of women at every age. Wherever her life takes her, she takes SMOV along for the ride in recruiting more and more sponsors to provide more vacations and wellness experiences to survivors