OCMA Specialty Spotlight: The Be Aware Foundation

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Be Aware Foundation Releases Two New Videos that Empower Women to do Breast Self-Exam with Confidence

The Be Aware Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to raising awareness for early breast cancer detection, released two educational videos developed to empower women to perform breast self-exam (BSE) with confidence. The two videos can be viewed on the foundation's website (beawarefoundation.org) or on the foundation's YouTube channel (BeAwareFoundation).

Although mammography has been proven to be the best screening tool to detect breast cancer at an early stage, mammograms have some significant limitations. In women with dense breasts, mammograms miss approximately 30 percent of cancers. Some cancers show up as lumps between mammograms, and women under 40 years are not advised to do annual screening.

"Current guidelines for doing BSE are confusing," said Be Aware Foundation President Peggy Brooker. "The guidelines recommend that women should be aware of their breasts and report any changes to her doctor, but the guidelines also state that doing BSE should be a woman's choice." The next question is "how can a woman detect an early change if she is not doing regular breast self-examination?"

"My 40 years of treating women with breast problems has convinced me that women can be taught to do BSE with confidence," said Be Aware Foundation co-founder Dr. John West. "With the support of the Be Aware Foundation I have created two videos which spell out, step-by-step, what women must do to learn how to do BSE with confidence. These videos have the potential to save lives, save breasts and save money....and it's free for every woman to learn from."

 

Founded in 2004 by Tanja Cebula, a cancer survivor, and Dr. John West, the Be Aware Foundation is dedicated to saving lives by educating and inspiring women to follow early detection guidelines for breast cancer. Our volunteer RN's and breast cancer   survivors deliver a compelling educational program in a "lunch and learn" format to companies, agencies and other groups of women in Orange County. Women who attend our Pearls of Wisdom program are encouraged to fill out a Personal Plan of Action whereby they commit to following the early detection guidelines.

We send email reminders to perform monthly breast self exams and annual clinical exams and mammograms. These email reminders also offer important information about new developments in breast cancer prevention and treatment, as well as general women's health topics, and our Ask the Doctor topics.