Breast Cancer Walk Designed To Help Women In Need

It was a beautiful fall day to take part in the Breast Cancer Awareness Walk around the Oskaloosa Square on Friday.

Oskaloosa, Iowa – The weather couldn’t have been nicer on a fall afternoon for a walk.
Nearly 160 people took the time over their lunch hour on Friday to walk and raise money for mammograms that will benefit local women.

Julie Hartke, Director of Radiology at Mahaska Health Partnership, spoke about the walk, and raising awareness of breast cancer within the community. Hartke said it’s the second leading cause of cancer death among women in the United States.

The pink flags that were planted in the ground around the square represented the over 2000 new cases of breast cancer in Iowa for the next year, “to show us that many lives, not somewhere else, but right here our own state that will be diagnosed with this potentially fatal disease”.

Hartke said that raising awareness may help lead to early detection which is important in surviving the disease. “Because when we find it in its earliest status, it is 95% over 5 year survival rate, which is one of the best prognosis for cancer that we can have.”

“We want to be able to help people catch it early”, said Hartke. “All of the awareness and the funding we get from this event, as well as our women’s health night, we use to help fund free mammograms for women who can’t afford it, or have high deductibles on their insurance.”

Mahaska Health Partnership is hosting a ‘Women’s Breast Health Night’ at the Nazarene church, on October 25th from 6:30 to 8pm. You can register for the event by following this LINK.