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Walk raises funds, awareness |
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Thursday, 08 October 2009 |
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A number of people, including several breast cancer survivors, spent last Saturday morning walking the city square park in downtown Broken Bow to raise awareness and donations for the disease. By ELLEN MORTENSEN
Chief Assistant Editor
A number of individuals gathered on a chilly Saturday morning to walk - for support, encouragement and awareness of what has become an all-too-common disease.
October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month (NBCAM). Since the program began in 1985, mammography rates have more than doubled for women age 50 and older and breast cancer deaths have declined, according to a NBCAM press release.
The group says while this is exciting progress, there are still women who do not take advantage of early detection at all and others who do not get screening mammograms and clinical breast exams at regular intervals.
• Women age 65 and older are less likely to get mammograms than younger women, even though breast cancer risk increases with age.
• Hispanic women have fewer mammograms than Caucasian women and African American women.
• Women below poverty level are less likely than women at higher incomes to have had a mammogram within the past two years.
• Mammography use has increased for all groups except American Indians and Alaska Natives.
An estimated 182,460 new cases of breast cancer were expected to occur among women in the U.S. in 2008, and approximately 1.3 million women were diagnosed worldwide. Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related death among women in the U.S., and the leading cause of cancer death among women worldwide.
However, the survival rate of early, localized breast cancer is high, 98 percent. One of those survivors is Joann Still of Anselmo. On Dec. 6, 2002, a biopsy confirmed Still’s cancer, and a short time later she underwent a radical mastectomy.
She says her recovery was made easier by the support and encouragement of her family and friends. Wanting to pass that support on, Still founded a local breast cancer support group for women in and around Broken Bow a few months after her surgery.
“This is a very emotional disease,” Still explained. “Women tend to pay so much attention to their bodies. You can heal from the surgery, but the emotional part of it stays with you forever.”
That is where the support group comes in. It is a way for women who have endured the same thing to use their experience to try and help someone else, while healing themselves.
“I know there was a reason for this to happen to me,” says Still. “And I am thankful to have a sisterhood of other ladies who have gone through this and that we can help other women know they don’t have to go through it alone. I really believe that’s why we go through trials - so we can help other people.”
Still is a strong advocate of early detection, citing yearly mammograms and monthly self exams as crucial. She says it is everyone’s individual responsibility to be accountable for their own body.
The support group started the Breast Cancer Walk in the Broken Bow City Square about five years ago, both as a means of raising awareness to the disease as well as a way to take a public - unified - stand as survivors.
The support group meets the first Saturday of each month in the basement of First Christian Church in Broken Bow, located south of Alco on Buffalo Run Road. The meetings are confidential, and Still says she believes the support of others in the group is an important part of the healing process.
“It is a terrible chapter in your life, and you can either sit down and cry over it or you can stand up and walk on,” said Still. |
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 15 October 2009 )
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