Public Employee Press

Activists tackle breast cancer

By JANE LaTOUR

"Creating a world with more birthdays," the slogan of this year's Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walkathon, signaled a battle against chilling statistics: In 2009, more than 190,000 women in the United States found they had breast cancer. Over 40,000 of them will not live to celebrate another birthday.

Local 1549's Theresa Stevens, then an Office Manager for the Administration for Children's Services, lost her sister Willia Mae to breast cancer in 2003. For the past five years, Stevens, now retired, and her family have walked in her honor.

Family commitment

Carrying Willia Mae's photo and wearing a T-shirt bearing her sister's name and the legend, "Hope starts here," Stevens met up with family members at Central Park on Sunday morning, Oct. 17. They joined with DC 37 members from other locals and tens of thousands of New Yorkers to walk for the cause.

A Northern Manhattan resident, Stevens described the family effort to help find a cure for breast cancer. "The first year, 40 members of our family walked together. It's dwindled a bit, but we still get a good number. We make a statement and we make a direct donation to the American Cancer Society in her memory."

Local 1549 Executive Vice President Alma Roper also has a personal connection that drives her to organize members to participate. "My aunt died of breast cancer. Every October, I make sure to walk in her honor." Roper led a large contingent of union members to participate in Brooklyn's Prospect Park walkathon this year. "Once a year, religiously, women over the age of 40 should get a mammogram. It's very important," Roper said.

A mammogram is an x-ray picture of the breast that can detect the invasive cancer in women who have no other signs of the disease. Studies show that mammography can cut breast cancer deaths among women from ages 40 to 74.

Minority women are less likely to contract breast cancer than white women, but far more likely to die from the disease, because their cancers are less likely to be diagnosed in the earlier, more treatable stage.

Campaigns to promote awareness about the disease have caught on - even in unlikely places. National Football League teams have painted the American Cancer Society's pink ribbon on helmets and players have worn pink wristbands in an all-out effort to promote breast cancer awareness. Just like union members, football pros and their fans have wives, mothers, and daughters.