» Mammogram Sister Pact:
Mammogram ad campaign focuses on 7 ZIP codes
Women who have made a pact to be screened for breast cancer are part of an ad campaign aimed at inner-city ZIP codes to encourage African-American women to get mammograms.
Lisa Taylor-Goodwin sees herself as sort of a town crier, ringing a bell to alert people to danger.
She hopes other African-American women will listen to her as if their lives depend on it because in a way, they do.
Taylor-Goodwin began getting mammograms regularly after her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer 25 years ago. And six years ago, at the age of 38, Taylor-Goodwin learned she, too, had breast cancer.
Growing up in Milwaukee’s 53206 ZIP code and owning a home in the 53216 ZIP code, Taylor-Goodwin was smack dab in the middle of an alarming map that shows women living in seven ZIP codes are much more likely to die from breast cancer.
Taylor-Goodwin is part of a targeted ad campaign unveiled Wednesday by the Wisconsin Breast Cancer Task Force to encourage African-American women to get mammograms.
“I think a big barrier is fear, a lack of insurance and the cost” for mammograms, Taylor-Goodwin said after a news conference at the Social Development Commission.
Called “Sister Pact,” the fourmonth advertising campaign features photos of African-American women with a friend or family member who made a pact to be screened for breast cancer. The photos are featured on billboards and buses and in digital and print advertising; the campaign also includes radio and television spots.
A 2016 Medical College of Wisconsin study showed women living in Milwaukee inner-city ZIP codes 53205, 53206, 53208, 53210, 53213, 53216 and 53233 have much lower breast cancer survival rates than surrounding neighborhoods. According to the study, 59% to 65% of people with breast cancer in those areas were still alive after five years while elsewhere in the city the survival rate was as high as 93%.
The statistics mirror trends throughout the U.S. where breast cancer survival rates are much lower for black women than for white women, said Kirsten Beyer, the study’s lead author and an assistant professor in the division of epidemiology at the Medical College of Wisconsin.
“The goal of the maps is to zoom in more than we normally get to see,” said Beyer. “This helps us target areas to get the most impact and the greatest effect on people’s lives. There are scarce resources in public health and knowing where to put them is key.”
The study reviewed Wisconsin Cancer Reporting System statistics for invasive breast cancer from 2002 through 2011 in eight southeastern Wisconsin counties. The results spurred the Wisconsin Breast Cancer Task Force to create the “Sister Pact” campaign.
Milwaukee Commissioner of Health Bevan Baker noted that women of all ethnicities have access to the same information and technology to combat breast cancer, yet African-American women are dying at a much higher rate from breast cancer. Among the reasons is confusion about the age people should begin screenings, a lack of primary doctors and a lack of health insurance.
“Our mothers, our sisters, our aunts are leaving us much too soon,” said Baker, who is African-American.
Baker said the Affordable Care Act allows Medicaid recipients to get mammograms at no out-ofpocket expense, which he worries may be at risk if Obamacare is repealed. A January study published in the American Cancer Society journal “Cancer” showed the number of Medicaid recipients getting mammograms increased in the five years since the ACA took effect.
Venice Williams, 55, asked her friend and mentor Gloria Wright, 83, to participate in the ad campaign because she said African-American women in their 50s, 60s and 70s may not know the importance of getting breast exams. The two are shown in the billboard photo smiling and hugging with the slogan “We’ve made a promise — a Sister Pact — to get a mammogram.” Williams, an urban farmer who founded Alice’s Garden, lives in the 53216 ZIP code.
“I delayed getting a breast exam out of fear,” said Williams. “There are things black women can say to each other. We can say, ‘Look girl, you need to take care of yourself.’ As black women, we take care of everyone else, but we also have to take care of ourselves.”
Women who can’t afford breast exams or doctor visits can get help through the Komen Southeast Wisconsin Breast Fund, which provides financial assistance to poor people for mammograms, ultrasounds, biopsies and cancer treatment. For more information, call (877) 910-7465.