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NewsChannel 3 is taking action to help fight breast cancer.
Last month Barbra Ciara got a mammogram and helped sign women up for free mammograms.
And earlier this month we talked with five co-workers who are breast cancer survivors.
Now a health task force is opposing routine mammograms for women in their 40's.
The recommendations are having a chilling affect on breast cancer survivors and the organizations that support them.
The American cancer society has spent years convincing women that 40 is that magic number.
Now word of a new recommendation that says it's not necessary until age 50.
"I'm so surprised that the age isn't dropping for mammos instead of going up to over 50. I'm really surprised," says Alexia Alford.
Alford is surprised because she lost her friend to breast cancer when she was only 28.
The U.S. preventive services task force is the source of these new recommendations and it justifies it's stand by saying:
"While roughly 15 percent of women in their 40's detect breast cancer through mammography, Many other women experience false positives, anxiety and unnecessary biopsies as a result of the test , according to data."
Breast cancer survivor Sara Jones - who used to fight fires - now fights to remain a breast cancer survivor.
"They're not actually honing in on when it does save your life, right? And isn't it that what we should be focused on - if it saves one person - it saves one person."
Sara works to educate everyone who works out at her fitness center that early detection is the key.
She should know. At age 28 she was turned away three times for a mammogram after discovering a lump the size of a pea.
"(The doctor) felt it and said its fine it's a fibro abnoma don't worry about it."
Time passed and Sara did begin to worry.
By the next exam she says they blamed the lump on her birth control. By the time she finally got a mammogram in August the lump had grown to the size of an egg.
What does this mean? The local Susan G. Komen for the cure group is getting lots of questions.
"Our phone started ringing off the hook there's a lot of confusion out there what does this mean, how does it affect me what will my insurance do," says executive director Ilona Webb-Bruner.
Insurance providers may revisit how they measure health plans performance based on the updated guidelines.
But the new battleground for cancer care advocates is getting the correct information out to women who are confused by this news.
"We want to make sure that we as an organization are advocating people get the care and coverage that they need."
The Komen for the Cure group has done its own research on breast cancer in the greater Hampton Roads area - and the numbers are alarming.
In the entire state of Virginia, Hampton Roads has the highest mortality rate and the highest number of late stage diagnosis of breast cancer.
For more information on when you should screen for breast cancer visit the local Susan G. Komen website at www.komentidewater.org.
Last month Barbra Ciara got a mammogram and helped sign women up for free mammograms.
And earlier this month we talked with five co-workers who are breast cancer survivors.
Now a health task force is opposing routine mammograms for women in their 40's.
The recommendations are having a chilling affect on breast cancer survivors and the organizations that support them.
The American cancer society has spent years convincing women that 40 is that magic number.
Now word of a new recommendation that says it's not necessary until age 50.
"I'm so surprised that the age isn't dropping for mammos instead of going up to over 50. I'm really surprised," says Alexia Alford.
Alford is surprised because she lost her friend to breast cancer when she was only 28.
The U.S. preventive services task force is the source of these new recommendations and it justifies it's stand by saying:
"While roughly 15 percent of women in their 40's detect breast cancer through mammography, Many other women experience false positives, anxiety and unnecessary biopsies as a result of the test , according to data."
Breast cancer survivor Sara Jones - who used to fight fires - now fights to remain a breast cancer survivor.
"They're not actually honing in on when it does save your life, right? And isn't it that what we should be focused on - if it saves one person - it saves one person."
Sara works to educate everyone who works out at her fitness center that early detection is the key.
She should know. At age 28 she was turned away three times for a mammogram after discovering a lump the size of a pea.
"(The doctor) felt it and said its fine it's a fibro abnoma don't worry about it."
Time passed and Sara did begin to worry.
By the next exam she says they blamed the lump on her birth control. By the time she finally got a mammogram in August the lump had grown to the size of an egg.
What does this mean? The local Susan G. Komen for the cure group is getting lots of questions.
"Our phone started ringing off the hook there's a lot of confusion out there what does this mean, how does it affect me what will my insurance do," says executive director Ilona Webb-Bruner.
Insurance providers may revisit how they measure health plans performance based on the updated guidelines.
But the new battleground for cancer care advocates is getting the correct information out to women who are confused by this news.
"We want to make sure that we as an organization are advocating people get the care and coverage that they need."
The Komen for the Cure group has done its own research on breast cancer in the greater Hampton Roads area - and the numbers are alarming.
In the entire state of Virginia, Hampton Roads has the highest mortality rate and the highest number of late stage diagnosis of breast cancer.
For more information on when you should screen for breast cancer visit the local Susan G. Komen website at www.komentidewater.org.
