Avon Foundation Breast Care Fund
Gifford Medical Center is awarded the Avon Foundation Breast Care Fund grant annually. The
only hospital in the state to receive the national award, Gifford is granted about $35,000 each year
to increase awareness of the life-saving benefits
of early detection of breast cancer.
The Avon Foundation Breast Care Fund supports community-based, non-profit breast health
programs across the country. The fund chooses
grant recipients based on their ability to effectively reach women, particularly minority, low-income and older women, who are often medically underserved.
Through the work of Breast Health Coordinator Jane Harrness, Gifford reaches women where they live, work and socialize. She travels the state speaking at senior centers and senior living facilities, prisons housing women, public events and to the media on the life-saving benefit of detecting breast cancer early.
“With early detection, more than 95 percent of women can survive breast cancer,” Jane notess.
Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer and the second leading cause of cancer death (after lung cancer) among Vermont women. Approximately 482 breast cancer cases were diagnosed in Vermont women each year between 1999 and 2003, according to an October 2006 report from the Vermont Department of Health, and approximately 96 lives were lost each of those years to breast cancer. Nationwide, there is a new diagnosis every three minutes and a death from breast cancer every 14 minutes. While advances have been made in prevention, diagnosis, treatment and cure, early detection still affords the best opportunity for successful treatment. Programs such as Gifford’s help ensure that all women have access to early detection information and options, even poor and medically underserved women.
For more information
For more information on breast care at Gifford or to schedule your mammogram, call Breast Care Coordinator Jane Harrness at (802) 728-2317. For more information about breast cancer, contact the American Cancer Society at 1-800-ACS-2345.