We would be remiss if we let another day pass without acknowledging the extraordinary accomplishments of Women Helping Women, which celebrated its 20th anniversary in late October.
Women Helping Women, which raises money to provide breast cancer screenings to women who otherwise could not afford them, started in 1998 through the efforts of Myra Bleill, the former director of the Hancock Regional Hospital Foundation. Those early fund-raising dinners, held at the time in one of the classroom spaces on the lower level of the hospital, started out as intimate affairs: 50 or so people — mostly women — with an interest in making mammograms more accessible to an at-risk population.
The first event raised $10,000, and 26 women received screenings. Last year, the event raised $77,000, and 168 women received care as a result of the program.
At this year’s dinner, attended by 400 people and held at Adaggio’s, contributions topped $100,000.
That small dinner has become a major community event.
Mammograms are a key tool in diagnosing breast cancer, but they can be financially out of reach for some people. Uninsured or underinsured women who have to choose between paying for groceries for their families and getting an X-ray probably will pass up the X-ray. And yet, mammograms are the most effective tool in helping doctors diagnose breast cancer. According to the Susan G. Komen Foundation, mammography correctly identifies 87 percent of women who have breast cancer.
The earlier the detection, the better the odds for treatment. So, it’s not an exaggeration to say that programs such as Women Helping Women save lives.
“If it weren’t for the doctors and the girls at the clinic, I wouldn’t have known; there was no lump to be found,” one patient helped by the program, Treasa Beavers, told the Daily Reporter’s Rorye Hatcher about her cancer diagnosis earlier this year. Like a number of people helped by the program, Beavers was attending the dinner last month to show her support and to show others its importance to women’s well-being.
As a result of last year’s Women Helping Women dinner, Beavers and four other people received the early care they needed to treat their breast cancer.
No doubt, a number of women in the next 12 months will receive their own harrowing diagnoses. Thanks to Women Helping Women and early diagnosis through mammography, they’ll have a fighting chance to beat it.
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