Editorial
Front Page - Friday, September 18, 2009
Race for the Cure shines spotlight on enduring problem
David Laprad
Sarah Bowen, president of the Chattanooga chapter of Susan G. Komen for the Cure, is sitting in Panera on Market Street, an unsipped cup of coffee cooling in front of her as she discusses this year’s Race for the Cure. Although she’s been making the rounds among the local media, her passion for saving lives and ending breast cancer is undiminished, so she talks at length not only about the upcoming fundraiser but also about educating the public and connecting with the less advantaged to help them take preventive measures.
“The race is our largest fundraiser, but we do a lot of other things,” she says. “We’re also stewards of the money we receive, and we try to spend it where it’s needed most in the community.”
In order to find out how to best use the funds with which the public entrusts it, the local Komen affiliate conducts a community profile every few years, talking with health care providers and women in the community to learn where the hurdles are. Although great strides have been made in terms of educating the populace about the dangers of breast cancer and the importance of early detection, it’s still dealing with many of the same issues the national foundation faced in its formative days.
“It starts with lack of education, lack of income, lack of insurance and lack of transportation,” Bowen says. “Some of the women in rural areas don’t have a car they can drive to a doctor’s office and they don’t have someone to take care of their kids. So when we looked at our community profile to identify the biggest needs in our community, one of them was getting mammograms to the rural areas.”
To address this issue, the organization funds a mobile mammography program through Memorial Hospital that gives people in rural areas access to the care they need. With 95 percent of the people diagnosed in the early stages of the disease now living for at least five years, the program has the potential to boost the survival rates in Chattanooga’s outlying communities.
With a coverage area comprised of 16 counties in Southeast Tennessee and North Georgia, the local Komen affiliate has its hands full. But it’s also on the receiving end of a groundswell of community support. Yes, the national foundation is confronting a disease that will kill 40,000 Americans and almost half a million people worldwide this year, but thanks to the volunteers, sponsors and people who give money to its cause, its Chattanooga affiliate has been able to grant over $1.5 million to local breast health organizations since its inception in the fall of 2000.
Most of the proceeds from the race and other fundraising efforts remain in the area, although 25 percent of the money goes to the national foundation, which is funding groundbreaking research on a cure for breast cancer.
“Komen is a grassroots effort that has become a global force,” Bowen says of the non-profit organization Nancy Brinker started in the early ‘80s after her sister, Susan Komen, died of breast cancer at the age of 36.
“They’ve given $1.3 billion to the cause. A lot of women are alive today because of the drugs that came out of the research they’ve funded. And they have a large force on Capitol Hill that’s involved politically with cancer issues, such as protecting a woman’s right to have her insurance pay for a mammogram at age 40.”
Meanwhile, the local organization is working hard to uphold its end of things, especially when it comes to education. Its efforts in this area include an upcoming breast health symposium for survivors and their supporters in Brainerd. The event will showcase several speakers and cover topics such as nutrition, exercise and sexuality after breast cancer.
“A lot of women have gone through chemo and want to know what they can do moving forward,” says Bowen. “Some of them might be too shy to ask their doctors some of the questions that are nagging them, such as how their husbands will look at them now that they don’t have breasts.”
Bowen says the keynote speaker is “a fellow who thinks nothing should happen that you can’t laugh about.”
The local Komen affiliate is also making sure it’s reaching everyone in the community, including those who have helped to make Chattanooga a more diverse place.
“We need to be reaching out to these new people and looking at how they approach health issues,” says Bowen. “For example, Hispanics are taught at a young age not to touch their bodies. So we’re funding a program out of Dalton, which has a high Hispanic population, that’s teaching Hispanics that it’s OK to do a self breast exam and telling them what to do if they find something.”
With 2.5 million survivors of breast cancer serving as living, breathing testimonials, there are plenty of people to spread the word about what Komen is doing and to encourage people to contribute. But for all of the progress that’s been made in breast health, researchers have not found a cure. And that’s why the national organization and local affiliation need everyone to pitch in, whether it’s forming a team to participate in the race, sponsoring a participant, volunteering at an event, distributing shower cards showing how to do a self breast exam or more.
“We all give to various charities throughout the year,” Bowen says. “But just about everybody knows someone who’s been affected by breast cancer, so when you get out in that crowd of 6,000 people, and you see those ladies and men in pink, and you put a sign on your back with someone’s name on it, it becomes a personal mission.
“You can make it through the race because you’re doing it for your mother, who’s passed away, or in celebration of a friend who survived. It’s a moving, emotional day.”
To register for the next Race for the Cure, scheduled to take place Sunday, September 27 at UTC McKenzie Arena beginning at 11:30 a.m., visit www.chattanoogaraceforthecure.com.
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