National Football League Foundation Donates $50,000 To Provide Breast Cancer Services In Marion County

IndyStar.com — The National Football League Foundation has donated $50,000 to provide breast cancer services to high-need communities in Marion County, as part of the league’s program to expand these services nationally.

The American Cancer Society, which announced the donation today, said it will enable the organization to offer breast cancer education, outreach and screening to low-income women in the county.

“This grant will enable us to screen more Hoosier women for breast cancer, particularly those that may have barriers to adequate health care, so we can save more lives,” said Tom Rich, director of Comprehensive Cancer Control in the American Cancer Society’s Great Lakes Division, in a release.

The cancer society is contracting with the Indiana Primary Health Care Association, which, in turn, will contract with five area centers. They will provide outreach to local low-income households and individuals never previously screened for breast cancer and offer culturally appropriate breast cancer education aimed at increasing the number of women screened.

The centers are: Community Health Centers, St. Francis Neighborhood Health Center, HealthNet Community Health Centers, Raphael Health Center, Jane Pauley Community Health Center and the Shalom Health Care Center.

The five-year survival rate is 99 percent for breast cancer diagnoses in the earliest stages. But breast cancer is still a leading cause of cancer death for women, Rich said, so that means it is not being detected early enough for too many women.

Grant funds also will provide training and establishment of evidence-based practices for increasing the number of screenings in a clinical setting at the five sites. Overall, the goal is to screen more than 700 women through June 2013.

The local grant is part of a $1 million grant supporting American Cancer Society’s program called, Community Health Advocates National Grants for Empowerment (CHANGE). It uses partnerships between the cancer society and health care systems in areas of greatest need to provide outreach and breast cancer screenings.

The NFL and the cancer society are in the middle of their fourth breast cancer screening campaign called, “A Crucial Catch: Annual Screening Saves Lives” (www.nfl.com/pink cq) this month, which is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. 

Call Star reporter Barb Berggoetz! at (317) 444-6294. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/barbberg.