On the Road

Did you know?

One in eight women will have breast cancer sometime in her lifetime.
Breast cancer is the second most common cause of cancer-related deaths in women.
Mammography is the best tool for early detection which is imperative in treating breast cancer successfully.

The Sacred Heart Foundation and Women's Health Center have launched an important campaign to raise $1.2 million to replace the Women's Health Center Coach and its mammography equipment.

Since 1999, the Coach and its staff (a mammography technologist and driver), have been on the road, four to five days a week, visiting businesses, retirement centers, clinics and hospitals throughout the Inland Northwest. Radiologists at Inland Imaging read the films and report the results to the women's personal physicians.

The purpose of these road trips, over mountain passes and in all kinds of weather, is simple–the best weapon in treating breast cancer is finding it early. And the recommended action is a mammogram, every year after a woman's 40th birthday.

The Women's Health Center Coach has never been a money-maker, but its mission of offering mammography through mobile outreach is of undeniable value. Simply said, convenient, accessible mammography saves lives and spares women from sometimes long and difficult treatment by detecting breast cancer in its very earliest stages.

The Sacred Heart Foundation is committed, through its Coach Campaign, to keeping the coach “on the road,” with a new, larger commercial-grade vehicle, better able to traverse the miles and terrain and offering the latest in mammography technology.

The Need
“Raising more than a million dollars is a big undertaking,” says Mary Butler, president of the Sacred Heart Foundation, “but the cause is an easy one to identify with. Cancer touches everyone — family, friends, people we work with; there is a strong possibility that mammography and early detection could spare the life of someone you or I know.”

The present coach and its equipment has served our region well; however, the 125,000+ miles traveled have taken their toll on the vehicle, says Julie Emery, Women's Health Center manager.

The mammography equipment that is currently installed in the coach uses film. That technology is being widely replaced in most imaging centers and clinics by digital equipment.

While both types of technology are excellent in detecting breast cancer, digital offers a lower dosage of radiation and in younger women, can detect cancer at an earlier stage.

In addition, Emery says the service could be offered to 60 percent more women using digital mammography. Unlike the film-based technology, there is no set-up time each day when the Coach is in service. The program is currently operating close to its capacity of 82 mammograms a week.

The Mission
The Coach's mission statement reads, in part: “We collaborate with caregivers and community partners to form effective networks of caring, especially for those who are poor and/or underserved, in their search for health and wholeness.”

That collaboration is an invaluable part of the program. “This is a region-wide effort and the coach can be found, on any day of the week, at locations like Rockwood Manor, Avista, the Inchelium Clinic, Lakeland Village and the Mead School District,” says Sherry Maughan, director of Women's and Children's Services.

“We know through our experience that when you make mammography convenient; women are far more likely to attend to this critically important part of their health care. For example, when you find us at a major woman's clothing retail business like Coldwater Creek, both employees and customers take advantage of the Coach's accessibility,” says Maughan.

“An even more significant fact is that some women simply don't have any access to the service. Mammography isn't available in their communities. They may be home bound. One home caregiver told us she arranges for many of her clients to have their mammograms done on the Coach, otherwise they would not happen,” relates Emery.

“If not for the Coach, I wouldn't have caught my breast cancer early. I am three years free of cancer,” says a resident of the town of Inchelium. She is one of more than 30 women who had their breast cancers diagnosed early, thanks to the accessibility of the Women's Health Center Coach.

How you can help
“Our fundraising will occur in a variety of ways over the next 12 months, including gifts from individuals as well as corporations, businesses and clinics currently visited by the coach and even grants,” says Butler. All donations, large and small, will help ensure that this service continues to bring potentially lifesaving mammography to women throughout the Inland Northwest.

Contributions to the “On the Road for the Future” campaign can be made to:

For additional information, or to assist in getting out the word about this important initiative, contact the Sacred Heart Foundation at (509) 474-4917.

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