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Event urges women to get mammograms

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By KLINT LOWRY | The Suncoast News

Published: October 31, 2009

Updated: 11/03/2009 09:15 am

Like many breast cancer survivors, Joy Dunn feels compelled to take her personal fight to the next level, to join the larger battle against the disease as a whole.

With October being Breast Cancer Awareness Month, she wanted to do her part. Certainly there is no shortage of walks and other events designed to raise funds and awareness.

"But none of them felt like me; I wanted to find my niche," she said.

As an admissions coordinator at Life Care Center of New Port Richey, Dunn is a front-row observer of the health care industry. Added to her own experience, she realized that while raising funds and awareness are vital, she could best define her niche by taking the direct approach, to encourage women to face the disease head-on by getting mammograms.

On Monday, a bus rolled up to the Radiology Associates of West Pasco office in Trinity, the slogan, "One Trip, One Test, One Life - Yours" written on the windows in pink. When it stopped, out came Dunn and over half a dozen of her colleagues, wearing pink T-shirts bearing the same slogan. Dunn had arranged for all of them to get mammograms that day. The little field trip was meant to be a direct benefit to those participating and to serve as example to women of the importance of getting an exam.

Dunn is quick to add her hope is to prevent women from learning that lesson the hard way, like she did back in April 2008.

"My daughter and then-fiance kept bugging me to get a physical and a mammogram," Dunn said. "So to get them off my back, I went and had one done."

It had been 15 years since her last mammogram. After all, she had no family history of breast cancer and never had any warning signs. That's why she was caught off guard when her doctor called her the next day and told her the results showed she needed immediate medical attention.

She had no idea where to seek treatment, and was pleasantly surprised to find Pasco County has "the best of the best" as she put it when it comes to cancer treatment. She was particularly impressed with Radiology Associates, which has been providing diagnostic services since 1976 and currently has four centers in Trinity, New Port Richey, Bayonet Point and Hudson.

With such strong ties to the community, Radiology Associates does as much as it can to help local organizations and causes, said Theresa Broughton, who oversees business development for the company. When Dunn approached them with the idea of bringing in several women for mammograms as a way to encourage others to come in, they agreed completely with her reasoning.

"There's a definite stigma to it," Broughton said, and over the years, they have learned to address all the concerns - that it will hurt, that it will be embarrassing. For some, money is an issue. And for others, it's plain old-fashioned denial.

"If you don't see it, it's not there," said Kim Chitty, one of Dunn's colleagues who decided to take part in the event. As a licensed practical nurse, she laughed at herself as she admitted she's been guilty of that kind of thinking. But neither Dunn nor Broughton were surprised; fear of finding something is one of the biggest obstacles to getting screened, along with its counterpart, the "it-can't-happen-to-me" syndrome.

At 41, this was Chitty's first mammogram. She's just become a first-time grandmother, and that was giving her extra motivation to try to ensure she'd be around and healthy for a long time. Even so, she admitted had Dunn not arranged for this group outing, she still might not have come in for a test on her own.

This was a first mammogram for nearly all of the women, and these are health care professionals, Broughton pointed out. That's how strong the stigma is. Radiology Associates offered the mammography at a discounted rate for those who didn't have insurance, and will continue to offer it to other Life Care employees who did not come this time.

It's another point on which Dunn and Broughton concur; October might officially be Breast Cancer Awareness Month, but the awareness needs to continue 365 days a year.

Klint Lowry can be reached at 727-815-1067 or klowry@suncoastnews.com.

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