SIDNEY — The money raised at a Making Strides Against Breast Cancer event doesn’t just go to fund research.
The money raised funds all the research The American Cancer Society (ACS) does for an entire year, and programs out in communities. The events raise around $74 million to fund everything they do when it comes to breast cancer.
“It excites me to know there are researchers out there right now finding ways to diagnose, prevent and treat breast cancer,” Joe Laber, master of ceremonies of the Northern Miami Valley kick-off event Thursday evening said.
One of the things the extra money goes towards is helping women in at-risk communities pay for screenings and medical care. Since that program started in 2011 more than $11 million has gone to these out-reach programs.
Janice Abbott, a breast cancer survivor, shared her story at the kick-off event on Thursday evening, and how the resources the ACS offers have helped her.
“The first time I was diagnosed was in 2002, and then after everything 14 years later I was diagnosed in January again,” she said.
Abbott had lived in Sidney for 28 years, just retired from teaching last May, and has five adult children and eight grand-children with one on the way.
“After I finished treatment and everything after about a year, I kind of put cancer on the back burner. I participated in Relay for Life, and helped out where I could, but I kinda of thought it was over and done with,” she said.
“So this past January it was time for my mammogram again, and instead of getting the letter saying I was fine, I got a phone call saying something’s going on.”
The doctors told Abbott it would be best to have a mastectomy because the cancer was in the same breast as before.
“The American Cancer Society helped me by sending out wonderful people that encouraged me and told me what to expect. And I participated in the Look Good Feel Better program. And they even continue to send me information whenever I need it,” Abbott said.
The Look Good Feel Better program sets up breast cancer patients with people in the beauty field to have a make-over session. They play with wigs, make-up, and scarves. They also partner with top cosmetic companies to provide beauty products to women going through breast cancer.
Denise Palivec is one of the facilitators with the program.
“But as you sit there and the women come in, and you start to putting scarves on, and doing their make-up they change. They talk to the other women and realize they’re not alone,” Palivec said.
By the end of this year 246,600 women are expected to be newly diagnosed with breast cancer, and more than 4,000 will die of the disease, and 2,600 men will be newly diagnosed, and 440 of those will die from the disease.
At last year’s Making Strides Against Breast Cancer of the Northern Miami County event they raised more than $35,000. This year’s event will be held Oct. 22 at 9 a.m. on the courtsquare in Sidney. Registration starts at 8 a.m. The walk will go into Tawawa Park and come back for festivities on the square. Breast cancer survivors will get massages and special perks, and at the end they will form a human pink ribbon and snap a photo.
For more information about this year’s event, visit http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR/MakingStridesAgainstBreastCancer/MSABCCY16EC?pg=entry&fr_id=77251.
