A Trusted Resource

“My doctors have been trying to get me to go for a while, but they never told me what you told me,”  said Bettie*, a Remote Area Medical Clinic attendee.

Sometimes people need to hear a message more than once, or in a few different ways, or at the right time for it to sink in.  This is why we feel it is important to get out in the community to educate on breast health. 

For people without access to routine primary care, knowing what warning signs to look out for can literally be a lifesaver. On June 27th and 28th, I went to Wise, VA for the annual Remote Area Medical (RAM) Clinic. At RAM, VBCF hosts “Becky’s Place” our cancer education tent. Becky’s Place has become a trusted resource in this community for cancer and health information.

This year, we partnered with UVA Cancer Center at Wise, Mountain Empire Older Citizens, and a volunteer lung health advocate. We educated clinic attendees about breast cancer, lung disease and cancer, tobacco cessation, colorectal cancer, and general cancer screening and prevention, including HPV vaccines.

Our education tent is typically located next to the UVA Mammogram Van, so we get many people coming by and telling us they just had their mammogram, or if they haven’t had one recently we can send them right over.

Many people tried their hands at feeling for lumps in the breast models we brought – even some nursing students who were attending as volunteers. We had some amazing conversations with those who visited our tent like Bettie who we mentioned earlier. She was experiencing symptoms but at age 70 she thought she was too old to get a mammogram. I asked her if she was generally healthy and thought she had a good ten years left, and because she said “yes” to those questions, she was absolutely not too old for mammograms!

Thank you for continuing to support VBCF so we can keep doing this important work.

*Name changed for privacy.