Santa Cruz, CA, June 16, 2017 (Newswire.com) - Twelve percent of American women are expected to receive an invasive breast cancer diagnosis during their lifetime. While many of them are predicted to survive, the disease continues to be a leading cause of death. Virtually every woman will be affected by the disease, either through a personal diagnosis or by someone in her social circle developing it. Women, however, are strong and resilient creatures and will not sit idly by, waiting for breast cancer to take them down. Rather, they are rallying together to take the fight straight to the cancer itself. Patricia Mince, a breast cancer survivor, is one of the women leading the way in this endeavor.
Mince has made a commitment to eliminate breast cancer completely. While she feels it is incredibly important that treatment methods are developed to improve overall prognoses and that women are committed to early detection through self-examination, her strongest focus is on stamping out the disease. She is doing this by creating outreach programs to raise awareness about the illness, raising funds, and remembering those women who have been the victims of this disease. To date, she has been able to raise over $100,000 to help her cause, and she is considering having an accessible remembrance wall in Oregon.
When Mince was diagnosed with invasive breast cancer, like so many other women, she had to go through grueling treatments. Her cancer went into remission eventually, but she felt that more had to be done. She wants to stop other women from ever having to go through what she went to. Furthermore, breast cancer affects not just the women who have it, but also their families. As soon as she was physically fit and healthy enough, she started her mission to combat the dreaded disease. Since then, she has rallied the troops around her, gathering women, men, and children alike to help raise awareness, petition the government, collect donations and engage in other forms of campaigning. Currently, she has collected over $100,000, and she aims to continue raising more.
One of the key things she is doing to achieve her goal of stamping out the disease completely is building on the so-called 'Angelina Jolie effect.' The actress, who is a famous human rights activist, was tested positive for the BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene and chose to have a double mastectomy to avoid having the disease. After doing that, many women were inspired to have the same test, essentially taking action before the disease would have the chance to develop. This is something that Mince is encouraging others to consider as well.
For Mince, the gene test is just one of the many ways in which breast cancer can be completely eradicated. She has made it her life's mission to find other ways, funding outreach programs with the financial donations she has received, as well as research into the disease itself. She believes that, eventually, no woman will become a victim of breast cancer anymore. She is determined to do this in order to make the world a better place, and to ensure that women will no longer have to suffer from such an illness.
Due to her efforts, Mince has taken the world by storm and has gathered a lot of attention. She has also joined forces with the Breast Cancer Survivors' Network, who have erected a remembrance wall for women who have passed away due as a result of the disease. At present, she is looking into the possibility of either having the wall moved to Oregon, or starting a second remembrance wall there. Additionally, she has continued the important work started by Janet Beebe, founder of the said organization.
Like Mince, Beebe is a breast cancer survivor. In fact, she survived the disease twice. In 1983, she established the organization, which is located in Fayette County, Georgia. While Beebe has now been cancer-free for a very long time, she has never stopped fighting the illness. She is standing shoulder to shoulder with Mince in fighting this horrible illness. Her focus, however, is mainly on early detection, encouraging women to complete regular breast self-examinations.
Beebe's work has enabled women the world over to become more self-aware, getting to know their breasts and spotting changes as soon as possible. This is perhaps even more effective than genetic testing, simply because not all women have the funds for the tests. For Mince, every action to fight breast cancer helps, and that includes raising awareness on how women can detect the condition as soon as possible, thereby also improving their prognosis.
Source: Patricia Mince
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