The Avon Breast Health Outreach Program has awarded a $65,000 one-year grant to the Breast Health Outreach Program (BHOP) at The University of Tennessee Medical Center Cancer Institute to increase awareness of the life-saving benefits of early detection of breast cancer.
It is the ninth year that the program has received funding from the Avon Foundation for Women to support its work on this important health issue, and in recognition of the program’s excellence.  
BHOP at the University of Tennessee Medical Center will educate area women in 21 rural and remote counties in eastern Tennessee and refer them to low-cost or free mammograms and clinical breast exams in their own communities.
This vital program will also provide free comprehensive education programs emphasizing the importance of the early detection of breast cancer.
Since 1996, BHOP at the UT Medical Center Cancer Institute has reached more than 20,000 women with crucial information about the importance of early detection of breast cancer and has referred a similar number of women for mammograms and clinical breast exams.
Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer in women in the United States, and the leading single cause of death overall in women between the ages of 40 and 55.  According to the American Cancer Society, 4,700 new cases of breast cancer will be detected in Tennessee this year and 890 lives will be lost.  
Nationwide, there is a new diagnosis every three minutes and a death from breast cancer every 14 minutes. While advances have been made in prevention, diagnosis, treatment and cure, early detection still affords the best opportunity for successful treatment.  Programs such as UT Medical Center’s BHOP help ensure that all women have access to early detection information and options, even poor and medically underserved women.
“Many factors, such as fear, keep women from practicing good breast health,” says Dr. John L. Bell, director of the Cancer Institute at UT Medical Center.  “There is a tremendous need to reach women with information and resources.
 “We are grateful that the Avon Breast Health Outreach Program shares this mission and has chosen to support our program.”

 

... read the rest of the story by Subscribing now.