It’s more than just about October!
The Making A Difference Foundation is promoting Breast Cancer Awareness month on their website homepage. With the critical need to spread the word on the importance of testing for this life-threatening disease, this charitable organization, known for helping the poor and disadvantaged, plays a key role in spreading the word to those most desperately in need of assistance.

In the United States women of middle and upper classes are most likely to be informed about breast cancer due to access to different forms of media, basically they can afford television, radio, Internet access, newspapers and magazines. These women also are more likely to have health insurance or the ability to pay for testing and treatment. But women of low income, the homeless, the displaced veterans, and those living in poverty have less chance of exposure to this vital information.

For these reasons the Making A Difference Foundation can really make a difference in breast cancer awareness as this organization deals with the poor and the hungry and the homeless on a daily basis. Part of the foundation’s mission statement includes the aspiration to “make a difference in the lives of others one person at a time”, breast cancer also impacts the lives of one person at a time, seems an appropriate and hopefully effective pairing.

The Making A Difference Foundation was founded by Ahndrea Blue in 2003 in the Seattle-Tacoma area and works to provide many services including food, housing and scholarships locally, nationally and in many countries throughout the world. The food bank, Eloise’s Cooking Pot was named in honor of Ahndrea’s grandmother and provides not only food but household items, pet food, baby items and delivery to senior citizens and disabled. In addition the charitable organization has a program to help struggling and homeless veterans by providing housing and support services.

A major goal in battling breast cancer at this time is to promote awareness among the low-income, disadvantaged and poverty stricken women in our country. Aside from skin cancer, breast cancer is the most common cancer for all women in all ethnic and racial groups. Among Hispanic women it is the most common cause of death from cancer, although it is the second cause of death with most people of color. More white women may get breast cancer but more black women die from breast cancer. The best way to fight this disease is in early detection, with mammograms being the best test to identify it in early stages.

Well aware of the statistics, the need for testing, and the cost to do so for low income and uninsured women the National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program works to provide free or low-cost mammograms for women in the at-risk age range of 40-64. With the promotion provided by the Making A Difference Foundation, the awareness of the breast cancer and the knowledge of the available testing options to detect the disease at an early stage will grow within the disadvantaged, low-income and uninsured. The fight may be one woman at a time.