Lady Griz, fans to go pink during game for breast cancer awareness
Story Discussion By CHELSI MOY of the Missoulian
Posted: Friday, February 12, 2010 7:15 am
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A breast cancer survivor of 20 years, Karen Townsend is participating in Team Up Montana, an effort to bring awareness to the disease, at Saturday’s Lady Griz game. Photo by LINDA THOMPSON/Missoulian
Share Twenty years ago, Karen Townsend couldn't imagine an arena full of screaming sports fans in pink T-shirts, cheerleaders with pink pompoms and basketball players with pink warm-ups all showing their support for breast cancer awareness.
Back then, women didn't even acknowledge they had breast cancer.
"We were more shy about the whole issue," said Townsend, a former Missoula County chief deputy prosecutor and 20-year breast cancer survivor. "People used to be ashamed."
Since then, many female public figures such as former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and actress Olivia Newton-John have spoken publicly about their battles against breast cancer. There has been heightened female political activism and the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure began holding races across the country.
Then, just last year, NFL football players took the field wearing pink shoes and gloves in recognition of breast cancer awareness.
Obviously, a lot has changed. But breast cancer is still the same potentially deadly disease.
That's why St. Patrick Hospital, along with the University of Montana, St. Joseph Medical Center, the Missoulian, KPAX-TV and Safeway have created Team Up Montana to raise cancer awareness, urge women to get checked early and often, and raise money for free mammogram screenings.
At Saturday's Lady Griz basketball game, fans are asked to pull out their pink clothes in support of breast cancer awareness.
Townsend, who is running for district court judge, is one of five breast cancer survivors who will be recognized during the Pink Zone game.
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Townsend, 67, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1990. She underwent six weeks of radiation and four and a half months of chemotherapy, all the while continuing to work as a prosecutor for Missoula County. She would buy pink breast cancer bear figurines and pins and pass them out to female employees in the office.
"I got kind of pushy, but because it saves lives," she said.
Around the same time, Mary White, a local addiction counselor, was recovering from six weeks of radiation treatment and two mastectomy surgeries. White, 66, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1989. Her initial reaction - asking questions like "Why me?" and "How did this happen?" - was typical.
Both women eventually joined a breast cancer support group, a resource that hadn't previously existed. Medicine can rid the cancer from your body, White said. But it cannot heal you emotionally or mentally. Only the support of family, friends and others who are also fighting the disease can do that.
That's why the breast cancer support group and events like the one Saturday are so important, she said.
"To have a community surround you and say, ‘We are going to fight this,' and put their dime on the line - that matters enormously," White said.
The first 250 women to receive a mammogram at St. Patrick Hospital through Friday will receive free entry into Saturday's Lady Griz game and a free pink Team Up Montana shirt. They also will get to sit in "The Pink Zone." So far, 195 women have received mammograms during that time.
St. Patrick Hospital and Health Foundation will be collecting donations at the Lady Griz game to offer low-income or uninsured women an opportunity for free mammogram screenings. Local primary care doctors or physicians at Partnership Health Center can distribute a voucher to patients to receive a free mammogram screening at St. Patrick Hospital. The program is available until the money runs out, said foundation Executive Director Joel Lankford.
At the Team Up Montana at a Grizzly football game last fall, the foundation raised $6,000 for free mammogram screenings.
The Pink Zone campaign was formed in 2006 after former North Carolina State University head women's basketball coach Kay Yow was diagnosed with breast cancer for the third time. Yow died from the disease in January 2009.
Last year, the campaign reached more than 912,000 fans, raised $1.3 million and united more than 1,600 teams and organizations in the fight against breast cancer. This is the second year the Lady Griz have participated in the event.
The Lady Griz take on Eastern Washington on Saturday at the Adams Center. Tipoff is at 7 p.m.
Reporter Chelsi Moy can be reached at 523-5260 or at chelsi.moy@missoulian.com.
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| I was taller then my Lady Grizz. It was such an empowering moment to see all those people dressed in pink! |
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