Community helps fight breast cancer - WALB.com, Albany News, Weather, Sports

Community helps fight breast cancer

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By Gianna Caserta - bio | email

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The community gathered Sunday to discuss how to fight a deadly disease.

The Samaritan Clinic has partnered with Morehouse School of Medicine and The Georgia Breast Cancer Coalition Fund to host an advocacy workshop in support of the National Breast Cancer Coalition's deadline to end breast cancer.

January 1, 2020. That is the deadline the National Breast Cancer Coalition has set to end breast cancer.

"One person cant do it, one organization cant do it, it is going to take collectively the community and the various agencies within the community to work together toward this end," says Nedra Fortson, Samaritan Clinic Exec Director.

The Samaritan Clinic has partnered with Morehouse School of Medicine and The Georgia Breast Cancer Coalition Fund. They hosted a workshop designed to teach participants how to change the conversation about breast cancer in their community.

"If we just have hope and all the pretty pink ribbons, and pink shirts, and balloons, and event like that, awareness is just simply not enough, we need to work together to end the disease, through more than just hope," says Amy Upchurch, Georgia Breast Cancer Coalition Fund.

This year alone almost 9,000 women are expected to be diagnosed with breast cancer in Georgia, according to the Georgia Breast Cancer Coalition Fund. Janice Route-Blaylock was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2007.

"I said everything is alright, right, and she said no, and it was like I was in a vacuum, it was as if the floor opened up, and I don't know what I felt, it was just emptiness, because I couldn't believe that was happening to me," says Janice Route-Blaylock, breast cancer survivor.

She came to the workshop Sunday to learn how to advocate for women who are diagnosed with the same disease she survived, but who may not be as lucky as she was to have health insurance.

"Everyone should have access to affordable, effective healthcare, not just diagnoses, but the treatment as well," says Route-Blaylock.

She says the community has the power to impact the reality of breast cancer by advocating for research as a national priority.

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