National Breast Cancer Foundation, Inc.

The Meeting

“May I help you?” asked the clerk at McDonalds.

I had no appetite. “Only a drink, please,” I answered.

My meeting time was not for another 30 minutes, so I sat silently observing the people. They walked through the door, women with small children, an occasional man on a work break. Mix-matched clothes, dusty feet, disheveled hair. They were so poor.

“I used to live in this city when I was a small child”, I thought,” but I never remembered the poverty.”

My mind flipped back and forth between sadness and joy. Sadness that anyone has to live like this. Joy that I had the rare opportunity in life to affect a place where I had lived. This was one of the 17 clinics in San Diego supported by NBCF with free mammography for women who cannot afford them.

Who Will Help?

Judith Waxman, vice president at the National Women’s Law Center in Washington, gives an alarming statistic from the Commonwealth Fund report, which she co-authored. “About 68% of women don’t get the health care they need,” she says, “because they can’t afford it.”

It was time for my meeting. I walked into the clinic. The crowded waiting area was filled with men, women and children with sad faces. I gave a half smile to those in the waiting room as I quickly followed the director to a small room where I would interview women whose lives had been affected by the free mammograms they received because of our funding.

Four women in their early 30’s entered the room. We sat at a 6-foot table chipped and worn from use. As we began to talk to each other, there was a melting away of our differences. I could only think about how these women were alive and on the road to good health because of National Breast Cancer Foundation. I was humbled at their presence.

Each interview was similar. Young women had found their way to the clinic by word of mouth. Beautiful Maria had a lump for a year and did nothing about it until a friend told her about the clinic offering free mammograms. She related her story. She was a mother of two small children. I looked at her almond eyes filled with worry. Her facial features were perfectly lovely. She was articulate, just born into a place where she could not escape.

She was waiting to get the results. Others had found the cancer in time. Their lives were spared. She hoped hers would be the same.

You Can Help

This is one incident in the lives of thousands of women we help every day. Most of them we never meet. You have an opportunity to join us as we save lives. You can give, knowing that 80% of your donation goes to help the women.

Will you give a donation to help us save lives? Click here to give.

Thought for Today:

“What you are is God’s gift to you. What you make of it is your gift to God.” –Fr. Anthony Dalla Villa

Live Live,

Janelle