Contact:
Jason Merrill
314-286-0302
[email protected]

ST. LOUIS - With Missouri’s unemployment rate at around 9.5% and a rising number of people without health insurance, a grant made possible by the Komen St. Louis Race for the Cure has never been more in demand.

The Siteman Cancer Center program called “Navigating the Safety Net” provides screening mammography at no charge to more than 2,600 underserved, low income people in all counties served by the Komen St. Louis Affiliate.

In 2009, the program served 700 more women than the previous year for a total of 4,275 patients. Demand is higher so far in 2010.

“What we hear time and again from women who contact us is that they lost their insurance with their job and they wouldn’t be able to get a mammogram if it wasn’t for this program,” says Susan Kraenzle, RN, manager of the Joanne Knight Breast Health Center at the Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine. “It’s a program we would not be able to do without the Race and their help is essential.”

That help also comes in the form of the Komen funded “Breast Cancer Patient Navigator Program.” The three navigators in the program work with over 3,000 medically underserved women in the St. Louis area.

When many think of the term “underserved,” they may think stereotypically of someone uneducated or unable to work. Kraenzle says it’s simply not the case.

“It’s a difficult situation out there right now and we see people all the time who had a job, got downsized and now simply cannot pay for a mammogram,” she says.

These programs are two of five overall given to Siteman Cancer Center out of the overall $3.3 million raised from the 2009 Race. Of the net proceeds raised locally from the Komen St. Louis Race for the Cure, a minimum of 25% goes to national breast cancer research and up to 75% stays in St. Louis to help organizations provide breast cancer education, screening and treatment programs.

None of it would be possible without the 70,000 plus who race for a cure.

For more information about the program, call the Siteman Cancer Center at 800-600-3606.