The Central Virginia Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure® awarded the VSU Student Health Center a second $50,000 grant to continue funding its PEAM (prevention, education, access, and mammograms) breast cancer awareness and prevention program to the VSU campus community and the greater Petersburg community. The grant funding period begins February 1, 2012 and ends January 31, 2013.
The first grant awarded in 2011 enabled 87 women in the greater Petersburg community to receive mammograms at no cost. Many of the women, some 50 and older, had never had the test done even though members of their immediate family were diagnosed or even died from breast cancer. The VSU Student Health Center also provided breast educational services to over 1,000 persons in the greater Petersburg community, through churches, community centers, sorority/fraternity meetings and health fairs. The Center also participated in the annual Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure® held in Richmond last May and designed a breast cancer homecoming float which included 100 male walkers during VSU’s annual homecoming parade.
“We will do our part in the greater Petersburg community to eradicate this dreadful disease that has constantly destroyed and disrupted numerous lives. Our goal is a life without breast cancer,” stated Dr. Rebecca B. Griffin, Director, VSU Student Health Center.
The Center’s nursing staff, project coordinator as well as female college students, who are called peer educators, are trained to provide outreach to various groups in order to reach the targeted population of women of color residents in the greater Petersburg area, who are over 40 years old or those under 40, who have a family history of breast cancer making them high risk. Women who require additional treatment will be referred to Bon Secours Richmond Health System’s “Every Woman’s Life Program” and Southside Regional Medical Center’s (Petersburg, VA) program for uninsured women.
On January 24, 2012, The Central Virginia Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure® awarded $587,944 in local grants to several organizations, including Centra-Southside Community Hospital, Central Virginia Health Services, Inc., the Fan Free Clinic, the Halifax Regional Health System, and VCU Massey Cancer Center just to name a few. The event, sponsored by Dominion Resources Services, Inc., was held at Dominion’s Innsbrook Technical Center in Glen Allen, Virginia, with a special welcome from The Honorable Dr. William A. Hazel, Jr., Secretary of Health and Human Resources for the Commonwealth of Virginia.
For additional information and to receive a referral for a mammogram, please contact Dr. Rebecca Branch-Griffin, Director or Mrs. Tanya Satterwhite, Nurse Practitioner at 804-524-5711.
About Susan G. Komen for the Cure®
Nancy G. Brinker promised her dying sister, Susan G. Komen, that she would do everything in her power to end breast cancer. For nearly 30 years, Susan G. Komen for the Cure® has worked to end breast cancer in the U.S. and throughout the world through ground-breaking research, community health outreach, advocacy and programs in more than 50 countries with a special focus on low-resource and developing nations. For more information, please visit komen.org or komencentralva.org.
Courtesy of KissRichmond.com
