Raising awareness

Supporting breast cancer screening is personal for LifeCare president

“That’s really where the awareness comes in. My wife is a great story because of the early detection. ... My wife is a living testament to that.”

During Breast Cancer Awareness Month, LifeCare Ambulance Services is continuing its tradition of wearing pink this month to raise awareness and promote early screenings.

“We did it the last two years, this is just a third year continuation,” said Dave Richards, president and CEO of LifeCare.

“We give each one of our employees a special pink lettered shirt with the pink ribbon.

“We give them a new shirt every year and they wear some of the ones they’ve worn in years prior. It’s just kind of a way for us to support the awareness.”

Richards said the month is really important to him.

“For me, my wife (Amanda Richards) was diagnosed with breast cancer in February of 2019, kind of hits home for me,” he said.

“It’s kind of nice that once you start to share your story, you find out that there are several people that have a similar type of story with them or family members where you don’t’ believe there are so many of them.”

Richards said LifeCare just wants to raise awareness while providing its daily services.

“It’s for some awareness of it,” he said.

“Our guys are in and out of the facilities taking care of patients all over the place.”

Richards said the hope with raising awareness is that it promotes early screenings.

“That’s really where the awareness comes in,” he said. “My wife is a great story because of the early detection.

“She went in and that’s where things were identified. The surgeries that followed and the treatment and care that was given, gave her 100 percent remediation of everything that was going on.

“It’s about not taking it lightly. There are also screenings for other cancers, but this is just the month for breast cancer awareness. If caught early enough, it can be 100 percent cured.

“My wife is a living testament to that. So, we’ve continued to do that because it’s anyone if they have that story that has that great outcome, they will sing it from the mountaintop to make sure you do that.

“If you catch it early enough, you can completely turn it around.”

— Dave Richards, president and CEO of LifeCare

SUBMITTED LifeCare employees wear breast cancer awareness apparel to promote screenings.