National Breast Cancer Foundation | Dallas News Live

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Joining us live, Douglas and Ashley from the National Breast Cancer Foundation. Thank you for joining me, guys. Everyone knows someone whose life has been impacted by cancer, possibly breast cancer. Ashley, tell us about the National Breast Cancer Foundation and what are you guys doing in North Texas? Yeah, thank you so much for having us. So National Breast Cancer Foundation was founded in 1991. and our mission is helping women now. What started around a small kitchen table with the Hale family has now expanded to all 50 states and in boardrooms across the country, but we're so proud to be headquartered right here in Frisco, Texas. We help women with early detection, education, and support services. Douglas, this may sound like a weird question, but what are some of the biggest challenges patients are facing lately? Well, you know, we talk to patients all over the country. We support patient navigators and hospitals across the country. And what patients tell us is that the two biggest challenges are the cost of cancer treatment and then the uncertainty and the emotional distress of a diagnosis. That's why patient navigation is so important because it's literally trying to remove those barriers for patients so that they have equal access to care. Ashley, there are resources, not just for the patient themselves, because a lot of people don't understand that there is a big task. caregiving for someone who has cancer. What resources are there for the entire family? Yeah, I'm so glad you bring that up. You know, we know at National Breast Cancer Foundation that when the patient is diagnosed, the entire family is impacted. We're so proud to have programs and resources in place to make sure that we can employ the caregiver to be the best that they can be to help make the experience more effective and efficient for the patient while they're going through their breast health journey. We have really unique initiatives like when a parent has cancer, if you go to nbcf.org forward slash parents, it allows not only the person that's been diagnosed, but their child to navigate through some of those really tough questions. You'll note some really familiar faces on that page where we've been able to offer different perspectives of different ages of children whose parents have been diagnosed, as well as our guys for good initiative. Douglas, men often think that one, breast cancer only impacts women, which it does not, men can get it too. But how are ways that men can help? Some men may say, oh, this is just directed towards women. You see women at these walks, but men can get involved as well. Right, and what you said was great. Men can get breast cancer. About 1% of all breast cancers are in men. But our Guys for Good initiative is just, it's a wonderful initiative that we started a few years ago. And one of the things that we know is that breast cancer affects everyone in the family. And so, whether you're a husband, a brother, a son, you may want to give back to your loved one. And so, we created Guys for Good to give people an opportunity to give back. And we do that in a few ways. We connect men that are going through this with other men. We help them learn how to raise awareness about our cause through early detection, and also a way to share their stories and fundraise for the cause so that we can give more patients access to care. Absolutely, at my first job, I was in South Carolina and every 19th of the month was called Buddy Check Day. And it was encouraging people to hit up their buddy and make sure that they did a self breast exam and get their mammograms. What information would you want to share for someone who may think they have breast cancer or resources to just make sure that they are on the right track to being informed. I love to hear that. You know, it's really important that people realize that the month of October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, but we have to turn the awareness into action, just like you talked about. NBCF is so proud to come alongside females to ensure that no one navigates breast cancer alone, and a big piece of that is educating them through our website on how to do a breast self-exam. It's coming alongside them and making sure that they're navigated to a real-life person who can help them schedule that life-saving mammogram or maybe navigate them like Doug was talking about through that journey to remove the barriers to care if you take one thing away from this time together I genuinely hope it's that you realize that NBCF is here to help women now and you will be navigated to a real life person who can help you remove the barriers to care to make sure that no one navigates breast cancer alone and this question could be for either of you or for both of you, what do you guys get out of being associated with this? I know you know some people kind of we kind of get numb to you know the marching bands wear pink and the NFL talks about cancer and we see it so much, which is good because it's for more visibility more awareness but what do you guys personally get out of being a part of this organization and impacting people's lives? Yeah, we were talking earlier, I think you know even going back to the Guys for Good initiative, I think a lot of times when a loved one is diagnosed you immediately feel almost helpless. We talk to men and they say, "I feel helpless, I want to fix" fix the situation for my loved one and they feel like they can't. I think at the core of that is a feeling of compassion and empathy for your loved one, right? I've had that with when my mom was diagnosed as well. I wanted to fix it, I wanted to do something and I felt like I couldn't and so I think the work that we do takes that feeling of compassion and empathy and puts it into action. It gives you tools. We give tools to patients, to caregivers, to people who are interested in this cause. we give them tools to go out and actually take action on these feelings and emotions. Yeah. We have that information on our website, Ashley and Doug. Thank you so much with the National Breast Cancer Foundation. You guys have a good day. Thanks for having us.