Highland Medical Center Receives American Cancer Society Grant to Highlight Breast Cancer Screenings

Nick Mullins:
October is national breast cancer awareness month reminding us of the millions of people who have been impacted by breast cancer. In 2023, over 288 thousands new cases of breast cancer were found with over 43,000 women succumbing to the disease. But despite rising breast cancer rates, especially among younger women, the death rate is declining. One extremely important factor in survival rate is early detection.

Morgan Hooke:
Early detection matters. One in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lives, and it’s a 99% survival rate if we can catch it early enough.

Nick Mullins
That was Morgan Hooke a nurse and quality improvement manager at Highland Medical Center who has been working with the American Cancer Society to get the word out about screenings.

Morgan Hooke:
We annually partner with American Cancer Society to improve screening rates for different types of cancers. This year, we work with them to receive minigrants so that we could support people in getting their breast cancer screenings up to date.

Annika Dean:
It was a pretty unique and also limited grant opportunities.

Nick Mullins:
That’s Annika Dean, Associate Director for Community Partnerships with the American Cancer Society.

Annika Dean:
It’s really exciting to be able to offer or ask Highland to apply and then they were awarded this grant. It’s only within 17 states and there were only 29 grants awarded, you know, one being Highland Medical. A kind of the tagline to the whole grant is 17 states, 29 grants, one mission.

Nick Mullins:
And that mission is pretty important.

Brittany Gumm:
Early detection can save your life. I’ve seen that with my own family members that the sooner you can get on that, you can have your surgery, take care of your treatments, and it’s behind you.

Nick Mullins:
Brittany Gumm is an x-ray technician and medical assistant at Highland Medical Center

Brittany Gumm:
This is so important here in this area, because we are so rural, and we have women that do not want to travel to go get a mammogram. They would rather just forget about it. Our goal is just to reach out to those women that don’t want to go anywhere to tell them about the mammov-van that comes here, and we’re also trying to get creative on ways to get them somewhere else to get a mammogram if they can’t visit the van.

Nick Mullins:
Access to screenings can be life saving, and the more they are available in rural communities the better. Andrea Davidson is one of those women knows the importance more than most.

Andrea Davidson:
In 2023, I decided to get my mammogram. I was 41, and I would have done it at 40, but we moved across the country, and we were dealing with the pandemic, so I decided to get my appointment in and do my routine initial mammogram.

Nick Mullins:
What followed was a surprising and scary diagnosis, especially for a mother of young children.

Andrea Davidson:
I was really shocked when I received a diagnosis. I had no prior family history, and I had no genetic predisposition on markers. I’ve always been blessed with great help, and I consider myself to be a very healthy kind of natural person.

Nick Mullins:
But thanks to the availability of the mammogram screening van at Highland Medical Center, Andrea’s early diagnosis and treatment was quite literally life-saving.

Andrea Davidson:
I’m so thankful and indebted to Highland Medical Center for, booking that van, because I’m not sure that I would have prioritized it if it weren’t an available resource to our community at that time.”

Nick Mullins:
So when should women start getting their breast cancer screenings?

Morgan Hooke:
People with average risk should start their screenings or have the option to start their screenings at age 40 to 44, and then they should have a mammogram annually starting at age 45. So those have changed in the last couple of years as far as recommendations. It’s moving to a little bit earlier of an age so that we can be more proactive about catching and helping people.

Brittany Gumm:
What you can see with signs of breast cancer, of course, women can feel a lump or they can have a change in the skin of their breast, whether in the color or texture, then sometimes you may not know anything at all. And that’s why a mammogram is so important. It can pick up breast cancer before you can even see or feel anything.

Morgan Hook:
The Sentera mobile mammography van comes over here once a month in spring, summer, and fall, and we can have people sign up to get their mammograms right in our parking lot so that they don’t have to travel over the mountains. But if travel is what they want to do, but they might have a barrier regarding paying for gas or something like that, we can also offer gas cards through the American Cancer Society grant so we can help with that too.

Brittany Gumm:
Being a mammotech and having a mammogram myself in the past because I have a family history breast cancer, you know, I can tell people it’s actually a fairly easy exam. It should not be painful, it should not be uncomfortable. It’s quick, fairly easy, and you’re out of there.

Nick Mullins:
For more information on breast cancer screenings, contact the Highland Medical Center, check out getscreened.cancer.org, or call 1-800-227-2345. For Allegheny Mountain Radio News, this is Nick Mullins.