BOSOM BUDDIES

Breast cancer doesn't just affect the patients it strikes.

It impacts husbands, wives, daughters, sons, parents, grandparents, best friends, coworkers and everyone close to the individual going through it.

"My stepmother was diagnosed eight or nine years ago," Kootenai County Firefighter Tony Blasick said Tuesday. "Because she got regular mammograms, it was caught early and she’s cancer free today."

Kootenai County Firefighters Local 2856 and Kootenai County Fire and Rescue are rallying to raise funds to provide mammograms to local women and men who are underinsured or uninsured through the Kootenai Health Foundation's Breast Support Program.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, but these local heroes realize this cause needs more than awareness. It requires support, especially in Idaho, which comes in last in the nation for women receiving regular mammograms. And especially in North Idaho, where Kootenai County lags behind the rest of the state.

"They’re super important, yet we’re last," Blasick said. "What can we do to make that better?"

The firefighters are calling on the community for just that purpose — to give North Idaho the means to do better.

"All of us are sons of a woman, and most of us have wives and mothers-in-law and daughters," he said. "If we can somehow make a difference, that’s what we want to do."

In a YouTube video announcing the firefighters' collaboration with the Kootenai Health Foundation, Kootenai Health clinical outreach coordinator Tolli Willhite said one out of every eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer sometime in their lives. Those who go in for regular screenings have a 98% chance of being alive for at least five more years if the cancer is detected early. For those who let it go too long and the cancer spreads, their chances drop to 28%.

"Talk to your doctor, get screened and be your own ally against breast cancer," Willhite said.

Melanie Lambrecht, development manager for the foundation, said that through the Breast Support Program, 91 patients were helped from April 2018 to Sept. 28 of this year. Nearly $27,000 has been used on mammography screenings and diagnostic breast imaging. Three of those screened were diagnosed with a type of breast cancer.

"This is a very important resource for our community," Lambrecht said. "With programs like this, we are able to save lives by detecting cancer early and treating immediately. We are humbled to have our local firefighters rally behind this program to care for our community."

Donations and information can be found at: bit.ly/37pH5ZP