Important Message About Breast Cancer Screenings

Important Message About Breast Cancer Screenings

Dear McKinley Family,

I am in touch today on behalf of both Albert and me with a very important message reminder for all.  As you will remember, last October we participated in breast cancer awareness month.  Many of you showed your incredible support by donating and joining our first McKinley PINK OUT!!  October has passed and while our busy lives persist, we cannot ignore our focus on wellness.  It can be very easy for us to put aside scheduling routine things like a mammogram or screening.  Gentlemen, you may decide to stop reading right now – please don’t.  Read this so you are aware of the things that can be done to prevent breast cancer and can encourage the women in your life to be proactive.  Also, I want to restate how much our CEO cares about your wellness.  We have so many initiatives to be grateful for because of Albert’s focus on health and wellness.   Albert encourages all of our team members to get checked annually, and to ensure we schedule annual mammograms.  He is a husband, father and grandfather of a beautiful wife, wonderful daughter in law, and darling grand baby daughter.  It is not overstated to say he cares about mammograms and breast screening for all. Schedule yours today!

I want to share some statistics with you from www.komen.org and www.breastcancer.org :

  • About 1 in 8 U.S. women (about 12%) will develop invasive breast cancer over the course of her lifetime.
  • A woman’s risk of breast cancer approximately doubles if she has a first-degree relative (mother, sister, daughter) who has been diagnosed with breast cancer. About 15% of women who get breast cancer have a family member diagnosed with it.
  • About 85% of breast cancers occur in women who have no family history of breast cancer. These occur due to genetic mutations that happen as a result of the aging process and life in general, rather than inherited mutations.

The good news is the number of breast cancer survivors continues to increase! According to www.komen.org there are more than 2.9 million breast cancer survivors alive in the U.S. today, the largest group of cancer survivors in the country.  Below is the five-year relative survival rate for all women with breast cancer in the U.S.:

  1. 99% found at a local stage (cancer that has not spread)
  2. 84% for regional disease
  3. 23% for distant stage disease

Many of you know my mom passed away from breast cancer at the very young age of 42.  Fear kept her from going to the doctor for months after she found a lump and by the time she went to the doctor it was too late.  Her breast cancer was in the 4th stage (distant stage) and had unfortunately already spread outside of the breast.

The most important thing for you to understand is YOU ARE NOT DEFENSELESS and we all need to be proactive J.  Make sure you schedule your yearly screening or mammogram so you and your Doctor have an important baseline of what your “normal” is.  Attached to this email is a “Breast Self-Awareness” checklist that the Susan G. Komen foundation sent out.  Use this checklist and share it!  Please note, it’s rare, however, even men can get cancer of the breast.

Information about Screenings:

  1. Cigna covers 1 mammogram annually regardless of your age.
  2. When scheduling your mammogram, request to have it done where you can receive a same day reading.  Your doctor will be able to advise you which locations will have a radiologist on site.
  3. Call Cigna with any questions you have about coverage 1-800-CIGNA-24

 

Statistics:

http://ww5.komen.org/uploadedFiles/Content/AboutUs/MediaCenter-2/BC%20Facts%20-%20082712.pdf

http://www.breastcancer.org/symptoms/understand_bc/statistics

Checklist:

http://ww5.komen.org/uploadedFiles/Content_Binaries/ENGLISH%20-%20Final1.pdf

Please let me know if you have questions.  Have a great day!

 

Yours in Health and Wellness,

Meredith and Albert

 

 

 

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