Submitted by Tina Rockhold
Mercy Health Foundation Fort Scott has been awarded a $1,000 grant from the Hope 4 You Breast Cancer Foundation based in Joplin. The grant will be used to help pay for mammograms for women who meet certain criteria. This is the sixth consecutive year Mercy has received the grant.
“Far too often women neglect their own health care needs for other priorities,” said Christi Keating, Mercy Hospital Fort Scott executive director of patient care services. “Funds from this grant will give women, who might otherwise not get mammograms, access to the life-saving screenings.”
The startling fact is that more than 40,000 women will die of breast cancer this year in the U.S.
According to the Kaiser State Health Facts, the rate of annual breast cancer diagnosis among Kansas’ women is higher than the national average, but Kansas women over age 50 report having fewer mammograms than the national norm.
For more information about digital mammography or to schedule a mammography appointment, call Mercy’s Imagining Services at 620-223-7015.