Funds will be used to bolster services offered
By DAILY PRESS STAFF
The Avon Foundation Breast Care Fund has awarded a $50,000 one-year grant to WISE & Healthy Aging to increase awareness of the life-saving benefits of early detection of breast cancer.
It is the 10th year that the program has received Avon Foundation funding to support its work on the health issue, and in recognition of the excellence of the program.
The Multicultural Breast Cancer Early Detection Program at WISE & Healthy Aging educates Los Angeles area women and refers them to low-cost or free mammograms and clinical breast exams at WISE & Healthy Aging’s clinic and other local facilities.
This program includes The Los Angeles Witness Project, a volunteer-based educational program using “witnesses” (breast or cervical cancer survivors) and health advisors to educate African-American women about the importance of early detection.
A similar program, Esperanza y Vida, reaches out to Spanish-speaking women. Volunteers and staff are available to provide presentations at churches, senior centers, schools and other community sites, and to staff informational tables at health fairs and other events.
Since 1999, WISE & Healthy Aging has reached over 45,000 women with information about the importance of early detection of breast cancer and provides 800 to 1,000 free clinical breast exams and mammograms annually to low-income, uninsured medically underserved women.
Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer in women in the U.S., and the leading single cause of death overall in women between the ages of 40 and 55. According to the American Cancer Society, 19,710 new cases of breast cancer will be detected in California this year and 4,185 lives will be lost.
Nationwide, there is a new diagnosis every three minutes and a death from breast cancer every 14 minutes. While advances have been made in prevention, diagnosis, treatment and cure, early detection still affords the best opportunity for successful treatment.
Programs such as WISE & Healthy Aging’s Multicultural Breast Cancer Early Detection Program help ensure that all women have access to early detection information and options, including poor and medically underserved women.
Many women testify to the benefits of this lifesaving program.
“I am so thankful for WISE & Healthy Aging’s free mammograms,” said Sarah K, who was diagnosed at WISE & Healthy Aging’s clinic five years ago. “Even though my sister died of breast cancer, I thought I wouldn’t get it because I was eating right and taking good care of myself. After three normal annual mammograms, I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2002. I was shocked, but very thankful that it was found early.
“Thank you, WISE & Healthy Aging and thank you, Avon,” she said. “Thanks to you, I’ve received treatment, and I’m here to tell everyone to get their annual exams. They’re lifesavers.”
Since 1993, the Avon Foundation has awarded more than 1,000 grants to community-based breast health programs across the United States, including the Multicultural Breast Cancer Early Detection Program at WISE & Healthy Aging.
These programs are dedicated to educating underserved women about breast cancer and linking them to early detection screening services.
“We are very grateful to the Avon Foundation for their ongoing support of this very successful program,” said Holly Kiger, vice president of Clinical Programs at WISE & Healthy Aging.
“We continue to encounter women in our community who are not getting their breast cancer screenings because of misunderstandings about the importance of annual mammograms, or who do not know that free screenings, and treatment, if needed, are available,” Kiger said. “With Avon funding we are able to save women’s lives and reach out to women who would otherwise go unscreened.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 18, 2008. Read the original PDF.