“Thank you for offering excellent awareness material that is easy to read and breaks down steps.”
“Have ordered items for [the] last 5 yrs for the community–thank you for what you do”
“Recently diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer at the early age of 33. Want to spread the word of awareness!!”
One of the founding reasons for the creation of VBCF in 1991 was the lack of education in the general public around breast cancer. For this reason, we remain committed to educating communities across the Commonwealth about breast cancer in any way that we can. Each year, we update our “Stay Abreast” presentation with the latest information on breast cancer statistics, risk factors, and what individuals can do to reduce their risk. We also have educational brochures available for anyone to order from our website. We make these educational resources available for free to anyone in Virginia, (though donations are greatly appreciated) because we believe that there should not be a financial barrier between the people of Virginia and vital health information.
The “Stay Abreast” presentation is shared all over the state, through virtual and in-person presentations given by VBCF staff and volunteers. This past year, we added a recorded version of Stay Abreast in Spanish (along with other webinars on specialty topics). These presentations and our Breast Health Basics brochures, along with some fun “pink stuff” for community events, are available to Virginians on our website. We have had everyone from people hosting family reunions, to church groups, to schools, to major corporations order our brochures to distribute. We send out tens of thousands of brochures every year, in English and Spanish, and we now also have a “reminder card” available in both English and Spanish that walks you through signs and symptoms of breast cancer at a glance.
Thankfully, there is a lot more information out there about breast cancer now than there was in 1991, but there is still much to learn, particularly when it comes to minority populations. We know that there are still significant health disparities in breast cancer for people of color and those who are LGBTQ+, so we include information on those populations in each presentation that we do and we have some population specific resources that we send out upon request. We hope that by educating people about the gaps in care that still exist and their effect on breast cancer mortality and complications, we can work together to eliminate those gaps.
We didn’t want to be here thirty years later, but breast cancer is still here, so we are too. We will continue to provide the most up-to-date information and resources about breast cancer to Virginians because knowledge is power.
$30 for 30 Years!
Please consider a gift of $30 to partner with us to continue this fight by providing free educational materials and programs that educate your fellow Virginians about breast cancer.
