Thumbs Up
Lynchburg News and Advance
Thursday, February 14, 2004Thumbs up to the Free Clinic of Central Virginia for launching a new breast cancer awareness program beginning at 10 a.m. today at the clinic on Main Street. The Valentine’s Day event opens a new push to educate and screen more women for breast cancer. About 51 percent of the clinic’s patients, who have no health insurance, are women.
Plans call for Centra Health’s Mobile Mammography unit to be parked at the clinic for one day every two months. The free mammogram will be available to clinic patients who have made an appointment and for walk-ins, as well.
According to the American Cancer Society, breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer in women, accounting for nearly one in three cancers detected in women. As a cause of cancer death among women, breast cancer is second only to lung cancer. If detected early, before any spread, the five-year survival rate for breast cancer is 97 percent.
That’s reason enough for all women to have mammograms periodically.
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