Grant to Provide Free Mammograms

Beginning in January 2010, more than 160 uninsured or under-insured women age 40 to 49 will be eligible for free mammograms at Summa Health System thanks to a $15,000 grant from the American Cancer Society. “We’re thrilled to be able to target these women, especially now with the debate regarding mammograms for this age range,” says Marlo Schmidt, Summa’s coordinator of cancer outreach education. “Dr. Demond Scott in the Family Medicine Department was instrumental in helping us get this grant and make it that much easier for women to get this important screening.”

The program will be coordinated in conjunction with the Angels Network, a group of nearly 50 volunteers trained to educate women about breast cancer through community outreach. One of the Angels has been hired part-time to manage the grant-funded mammograms.

The grant “meets the needs of a population that has fallen through the cracks,” says Heidi Eve-Cahoon, RN, CNP and Summa Health System’s breast care coordinator. While the Ohio Department of Health’s Pink Ribbon Breast and Cervical Cancer project provides free screening mammograms, they are only for women ages 50 and older.

 Eve-Cahoon says screening younger women is essential, despite a recent and controversial report suggesting that mammograms shouldn’t be done regularly until age 50. “We feel that the population between 40 and 50 needs to be watched carefully,” she says, noting that “just over 20 percent of our breast cancer population was between ages 40 and 49.”

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