MedWest-Harris & Swain Foundation’s annual Smoky Streak race fundraiser is helping local women in need receive lifesaving mammograms
8/21/2012
MedWest-Harris & Swain Foundation’s annual Smoky Streak race fundraiser is helping local women in need receive lifesaving mammograms
Sylva, N.C. – When Pamela Penny discovered a lump in her left breast, she knew she needed to have a mammogram. But because of her financial situation, the 63-year-old didn’t know how she was going to afford the diagnostic test.
After visiting the Jackson County Department of Public Health, Penny found out about a program supported by the MedWest-Harris & Swain Foundation and its October Smoky Streak race fundraiser that enabled Penny to go to MedWest-Harris and get the mammogram she needed at no cost to her.
The mammogram indeed revealed a suspicious lump. Penny then had a needle biopsy done, which came back as inconclusive. But when surgeon Stephanie Hornbuckle, MD removed the lump, Penny was diagnosed with what was described as “very aggressive” breast cancer.
Since her diagnosis, Penny has been receiving chemotherapy treatments that will last until the middle of this month. She is hopeful about her prognosis and thankful for the assistance she received through the collaborative mammogram program between the MedWest-Harris & Swain Foundation and the Jackson County Department of Public Health.
“Women need to know that there is help out there,” Penny said. “Without this program, I might not be alive.”
On Saturday, Oct. 6, the Smoky Streak race event in Sylva again will raise funds to pay for mammograms for underserved, qualifying women like Penny. Mammograms are important to women’s healthcare because they help provide early detection of breast cancer.
Because of funds the 2011 Smoky Streak generated, registered nurse Debbie Hage, who works at the Jackson County Department of Public Health and oversees the agency’s Breast and Cervical Cancer Control Program, said the department has had its “biggest year ever for providing mammograms.”
Hage said the agency had money from the state that helped pay for 86 mammograms for local women in need, but those funds ran out in February. With assistance then kicking in from the MedWest-Harris & Swain Foundation, the Jackson County Department of Public Health has since then been able to help more than 80 additional women get mammograms.
The Jackson County Department of Public Health’s Breast and Cervical Cancer Control Program serves women age 40 and older who meet the financial guidelines of the program and are uninsured, underinsured, or have high insurance deductibles. For more information, call the agency at (828) 586-8994.
The 14th Annual Smoky Streak race event in Sylva is Saturday, Oct. 6, and it again will be part of MedWest’s month-long Fall Fight breast cancer awareness campaign. The Smoky Streak is being presented by MedWest-Harris, MedWest-Swain, the MedWest-Harris & Swain Foundation, and the Jackson County Department of Public Health.
As October approaches, check back at www.medwesthealth.org for more details about the Smoky Streak and other initiatives of the MedWest Fall Fight, the month-long awareness campaign to highlight breast care services available locally at MedWest-Harris.