RMH Uses Komen Grant Funds to Raise Awareness Among Teens

2/3/2012

Richland Memorial Hospital’s Outreach Program recently went to the West Richland High School in an effort to educate teenage girls on the importance of breast health awareness.

“We decided to target our high school aged girls in order to give them an early start in terms of understanding breast health awareness,” commented RMH Outreach Specialist, Liesl Wingert.

The funding for outreach events such as these comes from the Susan G. Komen for the Cure grant that RMH received last year. This particular event is part of the Ribbon Chicks support group of Evansville which focuses on younger breast cancer patients. Ribbon Chicks sent member Misty West to speak to the girls about her breast cancer experience. Misty was 29 when she was diagnosed and is now 30. She shared her experience of going through the stages of diagnosis and treatment, and finally reconstruction that she has endured over the past year. Girls were encouraged to ask any questions that came to mind and both Misty as well as Outreach Specialist Liesl Wingert took time to answer.

Several factors that are directly related to breast cancer and young women influenced RMH to offer this program. For example, in recent years several young women in this age group have detected a lump in their breast that has required close monitoring. In addition, many young women of this age group have experienced a family member that has developed breast cancer at an early age. Early detection is key to survival in these cases since the younger the breast cancer patient is, the more aggressive the disease is.

For more information on this, or any other Outreach Event, please contact Liesl at (618) 395-7340 ext. 4608.

Misty West (left) poses with RMH Outreach Specialist Liesl Wingert before addressing the West Richland High School girls about her battle with breast cancer.