by Carla Saavedra-Santiago
For the seventh
consecutive year, Ohio University College of Osteopathic
Medicine’s Community Health Programs (CHP) has received a grant
from the Columbus affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure
(formerly known as the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation).
The grant helps fund CHP’s Healthy Adult Project.
The Komen Columbus
grant, which increased from $54,000 last year to about $70,000
this year, helps fund free breast examinations and clinical
services to uninsured or underinsured women.
The grant also
supports the Healthy Adult Project’s educational programs, some
of which help promote breast cancer awareness and self help
among the school-age women.
“One of our goals is
early education in the schools, so young women can integrate
breast self exams into their lifestyles,” says Kathy Trace,
R.N., director of CHP.
Janice Smith,
Healthy Adult Project coordinator, talks to young women at area
high schools about breast health. She teaches them how to
perform breast self examinations and emphasizes the importance
of monthly breast self exams.
“It’s a good habit
to get into for the rest of their lives,” Smith says.
Along with
presentations, Smith hands out a brochure with stories of women
as young as 20 who were diagnosed with breast cancer. Smith also
provides a shower card, which has detailed instructions on how
to do a breast self exam.
“It is more unusual
for someone that young to get breast cancer, but it does
happen,” she says.
Through CHP’s Mobile
Health Unit, the project provides clinical services to 13
counties in Southeastern Ohio that would otherwise be
unavailable.
This past year,
Komen funding allowed the project to provide clinical exams for
325 women and paid for thousands of dollars worth of mammograms
as well as provide breast education to more than 2,000 women and
400 students.
“Komen has helped us
reach thousands of women,” says Trace.
The grant also pays
for mammograms and health education programs in senior centers
and public locales.
In addition to free
breast screenings and education, the Healthy Adult Project
refers women to the Breast and Cervical Cancer Project (BCCP),
which also provides funding for health services such as
mammograms and ultrasounds.
“If something
abnormal is found in the mammogram, BCCP will take care of
treatments,” Smith says.
The Healthy Adult
Project also provides free diabetes, hypertension and heart
disease screenings.
The 2007
Columbus Komen Race
for the Cure will be
held May 19. The Race for the Cure® is the
organization’s main fundraising event. Last year, a
record-setting number of race participants — nearly 32,000 —
generated more than $1.5 million to fund local grants and
national research. Another recording-setting number — more than
35,000 — are expected to participate in the 15th anniversary
race, which is held in downtown Columbus. For more information,
please call the Columbus affiliate hotline at (614) 297-8155 or
email info@komencolumbus.org or race@komencolumbus.org. You also
can contact CHP at (740) 593-2432.
This year, Komen
Columbus gave almost $1.2 million — almost doubling last year’s
record of $663,843 — to 35 breast cancer programs, which serve
more than 85,000 women, ages 15 and older, in a 23-county area.
It has raised nearly $9 million since it began in 1993.
Susan G. Komen for
the Cure was founded as a promise from Nancy G. Brinker to her
dying sister, Susan G. Komen, that she would try to find a cure
for breast cancer. Susan G. Komen for the Cure was founded in
1982 and has invested nearly $1 billion in cancer research and
community outreach programs. The organization has become the
largest source of nonprofit funds solely dedicated to fighting
breast cancer.
- 30 -
News for the week of March 5 – March 10
