(inspirational music)
>> Mollye and I were at a Hopkins event.
>> I met Harriet at a party, a Johns Hopkins party.
>> And we, for some reason, we walked across
a area of the meeting.
>> And I looked at her and she looked at me
and we met in the middle of the room and we said.
>> I know you and she knew me.
>> And finally, after one minute, I found out
that she wanted to have a women's program
and I said, oh my god, I wanna do that too.
We can do that absolutely together
and that's what we did.
>> I first came to Johns Hopkins Medicine in 2012
and one of the first things I did was attend
the Woman's Journey that fall and I had no idea
was I was going to see and I walked into a room
of 1000 women in Baltimore who were enraptured
by the lecturers and the sense that they were there
to do something important, which was to learn
about issues important for women's health.
>> It started with my concept of trying to find a way
to protect women as well as for myself.
I was diagnosed with breast cancer
and I was told in the beginning
that young women at 40s do not get breast cancer.
I finally went to a doctor at Hopkins
and he said, "You're correct, you do have breast cancer."
And through that experience and learning how
to be an advocate for myself,
I realized I had to do that for other women.
>> The goal was to teach women how to take care
of themselves, how to take care of their children,
and how to take care of their husbands.
>> Women's health needs are very unique.
Just like pediatrics isn't medicine for little people,
women's health needs are very, very different.
>> When we're having our Women's Journey seminars,
whether it's in Baltimore or any of our others cities
that we're in, we're getting the knowledge
right from our researchers and doctors
who are right at Johns Hopkins and you can't get
that on the web and you can't get that anywhere else
unless you come to a Women's Journey.
>> The faculty are amazingly committed to the program.
They are huge supporters and we are absolutely delighted
that they clamor to participate, to be involved
with A Woman's Journey.
>> Each year at A Woman's Journey,
there are topics that are focused
on women of color, so typically,
there is a session specifically devoted
to a health issue in minority women.
>> At the end of every one of our Women's Journeys,
we run out of time because so many of the women
are interested in what all of our doctors have to say.
>> They way that topics are selected is
we send out a survey to people who have attended before,
as well as to the medical community
and the committee members and we get hundreds
and hundreds of responses, and then from those responses,
we meet a ton of times and discuss them
and then pick the topics for the year.
>> A Woman's Journey has definitely impacted my life.
It's given me knowledge to be able to understand
where to go for the next steps
and has impacted me personally
in that I've had excellent care at Johns Hopkins,
my father had excellent care at Johns Hopkins,
and so did my sister, all through physicians I met
through Women's Journey.
>> And I think it has had a huge impact
on literally tens of thousands of women,
tens of thousands of families across the country
and here in Baltimore.
>> We're celebrating the 25th year
and I believe it is the passion, the energy,
and the devotion that so many of us on the faculty have
to Harriet Legum and the other organizers
of Women's Journey that's made a difference.
>> I've learned many things from Harriet,
most importantly, the compassion and kindness
and generosity that this one individual possesses.
>> I think it's a wonderful partnership
and I personally, having known both
of them so long, am exceedingly grateful
for what they've given to the Hopkins environment
and to me personally.
>> My father had a very rare and debilitating disease
called trigeminal neuralgia.
If it weren't for me attending year after year,
I don't think I would have ever have convinced my father
to go to Johns Hopkins for a second opinion.
He had his surgery there, at Johns Hopkins,
and if it weren't for that surgery,
I don't think he would be alive today.
>> Our whole goal was to teach women
how to do things right and how
to make good decisions and I think we did that.
>> I get letters and calls from women
who came to the Woman's Journey
and have said if they hadn't been there,
they would never have known to protect
their child and themselves.