30 THE QUEENS COURIER • OCTOBER 25, 2018 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
Maloney touts coin to help fund breast cancer research
BY BILL PARRY
bparry@cnglocal.com
@QNS
Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney,
who represents parts of western Queens
and most of Manhattan, rang the opening
bell at NASDAQ in honor of Breast
Cancer Awareness Month last week and
met with the media to discuss the importance
of funding research.
One in eight women in the United States
will be diagnosed with breast cancer over
the course of their lifetime, according to
Maloney, and the disease is the second
leading cause of cancer death in women.
Mortality rates, however, have dropped
by nearly 40 percent over the past 25 years
due to investments in research.
“When I fi rst came to Congress, I wanted
to double federal funding for breast
cancer research and I am proud to say
that we have actually more than tripled it.
We have allocated more than $855 million
in federal funds this year but why I
always hear from breast cancer research
and awareness groups is that we need ever
more funding because research is the only
way we are going to fi nally defeat breast
cancer,” Maloney said.
“Th at’s why I authored, and President
Obama signed into law the Breast Cancer
Awareness Commemorative Coin Act.
Th is law created the U.S. Mint’s Breast
Cancer Awareness Commemorative
Coin Program which has the potential to
raise $8.5 million for the Breast Cancer
Research Foundation. Th e coin is on sale
now through the U.S. Mint, but only until
the end of the year. Together, with groups
like BCRF, I know that we can fi nd a
cure,” she added.
Th is year, the BCRF is funding $63 million
in grants to more than 300 scientists
across 14 countries, making it the largest
private funder of breast cancer research in
the world. BCRF is recognized as the highest
rated breast cancer organization in the
country, the only one with an A+ from
Charity Watch, and a leading nonprofit
example of effi ciency and transparency.
“Breast cancer does not discriminate,”
BCRF Chairman William Lauder said.
“Every two minutes a woman in the
U.S. is diagnosed with the disease. We’re
making great strides towards eradicating
breast cancer — research is the reason
that breast cancer deaths are down by 40
percent over the last 25 years. But there
is still critical work to be done and funds
raised from this coin will bring us closer
to our mission to end breast cancer.”
Clinical advances resulting from
research have led to increased survival
rates among breast cancer patients, and
death rates have dropped nearly 40 percent
since 1990.
“Research is the reason there are more
than 3.5 million breast cancer survivors
in the U.S. today,” BCRF President and
CEO Myra Biblowit said. “But more than
40,000 people continue to lose their lives
to the disease every year. Support from
this coin will help us move yet closer to
our goal of bringing that number to zero
and consigning breast cancer to the history
books.”
To purchase the Breast Cancer
Awareness Commemorative Coins, visit
catalog.usmint.gov/coins commemoratives
and follow the link to the Breast
Cancer Awareness Commemorative
Coins webpage.
New mobile mammography clinic in Queens unveiled, but it will serve fewer women in the borough
BY ALEJANDRA O’CONNELLDOMENECH
adomenech@qns.com
@AODNewz
At the entrance of the Long Island City
Health Care Center, administrators cut a
long pink ribbon releasing a powerhouse
of breast cancer prevention — a mobile
mammography clinic, a mini-doctor’s
offi ce on wheels.
On Oct. 22, Project Renewal, a nonprofi
t that works to provide health care
and housing to New York City’s homeless,
introduced its new mobile mammography
clinic to the borough of Queens
during the ribbon-cutting ceremony.
On the outside, the 40-foot-long vehicle
resembles an RV. But inside, is home
to state-of-the-art Hologic full fi eld digital
mammography machinery, a nurses’
offi ce and a reception area.
Although the $650,000 vehicle is ready
to travel around the city, the new mobile
clinic will only be serving a fourth of
the number of Queens women that the
old vehicle served last year. Th e Cancer
Services Program of Queens, which
receives funding from the New York State
Health Department, has decided to not
renew its mobile mammography clinic
contract with Project Renewal, according
to director and founder of Project
Renewal, Mary Solomon.
Under New York State’s Cancer
Services Program, 22 cancer services contractors
were “competitively procured,”
said a Jeff rey Hammond, a spokesman
for the state Department of Health, in
an email to QNS. Five cancer service
programs were contracted in New York
City: New York-Presbyterian Queens,
Th e Brooklyn Hospital Center, Lincoln
Medical & Mental Health Center, Th e
New York Presbyterian Hospital and
Staten Island University Hospital.
“Th ey don’t need us,” Solomon said.
“We are now telling these Queens residents
we are sorry, we can’t come back to
you.” Project Renewal was able to serve
about 1,000 women in the borough of
Queens last year but that number will
have to be whittled down to 250.
Of the 2.33 million Queens residents,
13 percent live in poverty and nearly half
are immigrants, according to Data USA, a
website that aggregates and analyzes U.S
government data. What makes Project
Renewal’s mobile mammography clinic
unique is that it is specially targets “the
working poor” and immigrant women.
Project Renewal works with a dozen
community centers, churches and nonprofi
ts to help bring breast exams and
mammographies to new New Yorkers
who may not undergo a check-up due
to language or cultural constrictions.
The Tvistomi Association, Korean
Community Services, Charles B. Wang
Community Health Center, Sapna NYC
and Gujarati Samaj are just some of
the Queens organizations that Project
Renewal’s mobile clinic has worked with.
Th e clinics ability to essentially bring
a mammography and breast exam to
women accommodates multiple-job
holders and those who might bypass an
annual exam for other reasons.
“Some of my friends are afraid and
Photo courtesy of Project Renewal
I want to hit them in the heads — look
at what happened to me,” said Christal
Putkowski, a 67-year-old Staten Island
resident who was diagnosed with breast
cancer aft er an annual check up at one of
the Project Renewal mobile mammography
clinics. Putkowski said that she owed
her life to Solomon and her team who also
called her on a weekly basis aft er her double
mastectomy in 2013.
“If I was depressed and crying they
would cry along with me,” Putkowski
said. Solomon’s team would also encourage
her to keep her chin up. “I know other
women who never got that kind of service.”
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