Imagine what life is like for those who have few options… for those who have to choose between putting food on their table or going to the doctor, even for preventive health checks.
Now imagine detecting a problem with your health, knowing that something life-threatening could be developing, but not having insurance or enough money to supplement your insurance.
So you wait… you worry… you face an uncertain future, often silently.
Today, I want to remind people that you can connect to help through some of the wonders of communities across the nation – community service agencies. Right here in Central Indiana, there are thousands of non-profit agencies lifting people through crises, including health. WTHR helps promote many of these agencies year-round, but we give special support to an agency that is changing or saving the lives of our mothers, daughters, sisters and friends.
Last year alone, Susan G. Komen for the Cure Central Indiana awarded grants, to offer free mammograms and free cancer support services, to more than 38,000 women. They were women, like Brenda Maxie, a retiree who had no health insurance at the time. Komen Central Indiana paid for her mammogram and Brenda discovered a shocking diagnosis. She had Stage 3 breast cancer. That’s just one stage away from breast cancer’s last stage, which takes the lives of thousands of women each year.
When we talked to Brenda last year, she was cancer-free, after finishing treatment, and she told us she was “truly, truly blessed.” Brenda is a living, breathing testimony to the power of a non-profit agency.
“I am just thankful for the Susan G. Komen group because, without them, I don’t know where I’d be.”
But Brenda is not alone. Last year, those same Komen Central Indiana grants were used to help detect breast cancer in 100 more women. Many women were clueless about the cancer that was invading their body. And many of them, too, are thankful that they received a timely diagnosis and treatment that saved their lives. Komen gives its grants to non-profit agencies that directly offer free cancer services to women and men.
In 2013, Komen awarded $1.3 million to organizations such as the Little Red Door Cancer Agency, the Gennesaret Free Clinic and the St. Vincent Mobile Mammography Unit.
And, thousands of you are the force behind the dollars that Komen Central Indiana raises and donates. Many of you give up a Saturday morning in April, rising early to lift the spirits of thousands of breast cancer patients in Central Indiana. You walk or run in a 5K or 1-Mile Family Race and you cheer on survivors in a Pink Parade at the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure.
This is an incredible “sea of humanity,” as men, women and children, 25,000 strong, storm the streets to wage a war against a devastating disease that will take the lives of one in eight women – our mothers, our daughters, our sisters, our friends.
Stand with WTHR, a proud race sponsor, and thousands of others who say… “Not in our backyard!”
Give Hoosier women a chance to live a long and healthy life. Join the Race for the Cure, at Military Park, on April 12. You will be supporting an agency that funds life-saving treatments and research in Central Indiana. You will give women more options. Register on wthr.com.
You can email comments to Angela Cain at acain@wthr.com.
