UnityPoint Health Foundation offering free mammograms

CONTRIBUTED PHOTO A UnityPoint Health-Marshalltown Diagnostic Imaging technician is pictured with a patient undergoing a breast cancer exam recently.

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For the fifth consecutive year UnityPoint Health-Marshalltown Foundation, in partnership with its hospital team and in cooperation with McFarland Clinic, PC radiologists, is offering free-of-charge mammograms to under- and non-insured women in Central Iowa.

Screenings will be provided by UnityPoint Health-Marshalltown’s board-certified mammography technologists at its Medical Park.

Since the program’s implementation, more than 100 women have received potentially life-saving free-of-charge mammograms.

“Screening mammograms help make it possible to find breast cancer early, when the successful treatment of the disease is the highest,” UnityPoint Health-Marshalltown Manager of Diagnostic Imaging Department Tracy Herington said. “Our mission is to provide women an opportunity for early detection, without having to face a financial burden.”

To be eligible for a free mammogram, women must complete an application and be over age 40. Additionally, applicants must meet income guidelines.

Applications for are available at UnityPoint Health – Marshalltown locations, on its website at marshalltown.unitypoint.org under Quick Links, or, contact the Foundation, 641-754-5005. Applications must be submitted to the Foundation by July 31. Qualifying applicants will then be contacted and scheduled for appointments.

“The Foundation strongly urges women who have delayed getting a mammogram for financial reasons to contact us immediately to determine eligibility,” Foundation Executive Director Dierdre Gruendler said.

Mammogram expense fees for eligible women are paid by the Prevent Fund and Iowa Care for Yourself. The Foundation’s Prevent Fund generates income from its annual Breast Cancer Awareness Luncheon and from donations. Its mission is to reduce the impact of breast cancer on Central Iowa women.

In 2013, an estimated 232,340 new cases of invasive breast cancer were expected to be diagnosed among U.S. women, as well as an estimated 64,640 additional cases of situ breast cancer.

An estimated 39,620 American women died from breast cancer in 2013, with only lung cancer accounting for more cancer deaths in women.

Breast cancer incidence rates are highest in non-Hispanic white women, followed by African-American women and are lowest among Asian/Pacific Islander women, according to the American Cancer Society.

For more information about the PREVENT program contact 641-754-5005.

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Contact Mike Donahey at 641-753-6611 or mdonahey@timesrepublican.com

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