it happens every first weekend in
October thousands of men women and
children gather on the Allen Parkway for
the Susan G Komen Race for the Cure the
goal is to raise as much money as
possible that will go toward research
toward grants for organizations
providing support for those fighting
cancer and now for direct services
provided by Susan G Komen Houston komen
is the world's largest nonprofit funder
of breast cancer research and I'm proud
to be one of the chairs of this year's
Race for the Cure more about that later
on this week's newsmakers extra but
first my guest this morning dr. Laura
Neal the chair of health disparities
research MD Anderson Cancer Center and
Kristin barley the senior director of
development for Susan G Komen Houston
and a ten year breast survivor breast
cancer survivor good morning to both of
you the line of research of being here
dr. MacNeill you were given a grant by
the komen foundation talk about what
that grant does and what kind of
difference it's making so where is black
women and white women are equally as
likely to get breast cancer
nationally black women are 40 percent
more likely to die of breast cancer and
in the city of Houston 62 percent more
likely to die of breast cancer those
rates are alarming and there are
solutions that exist that involve
community partnerships to increase
access to services but also research has
a role so we're grateful to the Susan G
Komen Foundation for granting us a
training grant to train the next
workforce the people who are going to be
on the ground helping to reduce these
disparities what kinds of things have
come up that kind of indicate they might
be a contributor to this real difference
in numbers for Houston as opposed to the
rest of the country so african-american
women are more likely to present at
cancer at later stages so at earlier
stages it's more treatable at later
stages it's less likely so that's one of
the driving factors and of course access
to services as was talked about in the
next segment before which is really
important access to mammograms access to
treatment when you do receive cancer and
comprehensive follow-up care komen
foundation awarded 31 million dollars
last year in grants 400,000 MD Anderson
Cancer Center to train and do exactly
what you're doing there
Kristen has a 10-year survivor what role
was komen played in helping you with how
energize are you to help komen reach
these goals
I'm very energized just through my
experience with Susan G Komen and the
funds we raised here in Houston
seventy-five cents of every dollar stays
here locally and then 25 cents of every
dollar is for national research
something that comes right back here
that's right back here we've got the
state of the art Medical Center here in
Houston and we're really making strides
so just having that care that I had when
I had breast cancer was very important
this whole process that Coleman has this
bold goal of reducing breast cancer
mortality by 50% by the year 2026 so
that's a real challenge how optimistic
are you that those numbers can be
reached come in Houston were very
optimistic with grants that we give to
MD Anderson such as that we know that
we're helping towards that bold goal of
reducing cancer deaths by 50% by 2026
and there's also now we've been known
for raising money and giving grants out
but we have a direct assistance fund as
well what is that about it's the
treatment Assistance Program it started
this spring and so if a woman our man
needs assistance they can call one eight
seven seven go komen they get a
screening and some questions answered to
see if they qualify and they can
actually get direct funds to help with
their cancer and that's a beautiful
something new program for but let's talk
about the race this year October 6 an
important comeback here for Susan G
Komen you postponed because of Hurricane
Harvey had the race in January race day
was rainy the numbers weren't what we'd
hoped for that meant less money to
distribute what are your hopes for this
year for this year's race it's gonna be
bright and sunny we're gonna have a
great race and everybody's gonna come
out and join us on October 6 well it's
one of the race chairs I'm calling on
everybody who calls himself a friend of
mine companies that want to be a part of
solving a major problem in our community
every day statistic tell us two women
are dying of breast cancer in the
Houston region nine more diagnosed you
added the families of those women and
and you can see the impact that's why
I'm asking for your support here's how
you can do that if you've had a team in
the past it's time to sign up again if
this will be your first time it's time
to sign up if you do it by July 31st
that's Tuesday you get a $15.00 early
bird discount not only what I like for
you to register but also raise donations
if we get 15,000 people out and you
haven't raised any money that's okay but
if we get 15,000 people get $100 each
then that's gonna be better we can help
a lot of organizations go to Coleman
Houston or click on the register now
banner and let's make a difference dr.
McNeil the researcher doing now huh
optimistic are you that all of what's
going on is gonna make a dent and how we
can understand how these disparities
exist this is a great period of time in
cancer research as everybody has heard
between the moonshots nationally with
Vice President Biden's program you know
the cancer centers are on the cutting
edge of new discoveries we are really
close I think to really figuring out how
to address cancer and particularly
breast cancer awareness seems to be a
big issue once we get more people aware
that is that kind of gives everybody
attuned to what you're doing
yeah there's substantial money being
raised substantial more investment in
the National Institutes of Health and a
National Cancer Institute that is going
towards breast cancer research so I do
think that the awareness is being raised
and we have active communities that are
ready to engage in this fight to learn
how to you know reduce your personal
risk for cancer and improve your
family's health care and you're doing it
as well dr. MacNeill Kristin Brawley
thank you and stick around for
newsmakers actually we've got a lot more
to talk about about the komen research
what's going on in the fight against
breast cancer in ways you can help on
newsmakers page on click2houston.com
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