A crew with the City of Conway hung pink pumpkins from the trees at the entrance to Conway Medical Center on Tuesday morning for Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
“The pink here is for Breast Cancer Awareness Month and we certainly hope as people drive by and see the pink pumpkins that it's a reminder about what Breast Cancer Awareness Month is all about which is early detection,” said Allyson Floyd, a media relations strategist for Conway Medical Center.
People who are unable to make it to the medical center to get screened for breast cancer are encouraged to use CMC's mammography van.
“We have programs available here at the Conway Medical Center to help. We don't want anyone to have barriers to getting the care they need and getting those screenings,” Floyd said. “We have programs available to help with costs. We have programs like our mobile mammography center, which is the van, so if a patient has an issue with traveling to get a screening, we have that availability on the van for people to be able to get their screening.”
Floyd also said that the technology used in the van for screenings is the same as the technology used in the imaging center, which is also open to anyone looking to get screened.
The American Cancer Society says that women ages 45 to 54 should get screened annually while women who are 55 and older should be screened every two years, unless a medical provider says otherwise. Additionally, women of all ages should report any major changes in how their breasts feel to a medical provider.
The Centers for Disease Control and Preventions says that men can also get breast cancer, but that is not as likely to occur in men as in women.
“Back in February, I was at work and actually went to one of our physician offices to drop some papers off and our mammography van was there and I was actually due for my screening, so I knocked on the door and went in and got my screening and it came back that I had breast cancer,” Floyd said. “I've been through chemo, I've been through radiation and am doing very, very well, but because of that van, they caught it early and mine is considered curable.”
There is a calendar available at the medical center’s website where people in need of a screening can find out where the mammography van is scheduled to be located.
“My mother is a 33-year breast cancer survivor, so I knew how important it was, but it is so very easy for women to kind of put that to the side because women in particular are so busy with families and work and everything else that we don't often take care of ourselves. So for women to recognize, ‘I need to do this for me, I need to do this for my family,’ is so important,” Floyd said.
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