Babylon Town Presents Special Breast Cancer Forum

In honor of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the will be holding a special forum on October 17 where breast cancer survivors will share their stories and provide information about support services.

Presented by Steve Bellone, Babylon Town supervisor, and Ellen McVeety, town councilwoman and chairperson of the Babylon Town department of human services, the Breast Cancer Awareness Forum will feature representatives from the Sisters of Greater Long Island and the Witness Project.

The Sisters of Greater Long Island – founded in 2001 by several African American women who are breast cancer survivors – seeks “to remove the fear of cancer and its treatments from the minds of African-American women and men in the Long Island community,” according to town officials familiar with the organization.

The group also aims “to provide support to African-American women/men with breast cancer; to form a partnership with the African-American community and other community organizations through outreach awareness programs and education; and to promote the importance of breast health and early detection through monthly breast self-exams, clinical breast exams and mammography screenings.”

The Witness Project of Long Island is a breast health and breast cancer educational program that reaches out to women in African American communities, and was started in 2003 by the Stony Brook University Cancer Center in partnership with the Town of Babylon.

It was modeled after the original faith-based, educational Witness Project that was first developed in 1991 at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, in response to the Centers for Disease Control’s finding of disparities in breast cancer survival rates between African American women and their white counter parts, according to town officials familiar with the organization.

“Since the launch of this program, trained, dedicated volunteers have shared our message – early detection of breast cancer saves lives – at churches, community and organizational health fairs, missionary annual days, shopping malls and at its educational conferences. To date they have provided breast health and breast cancer information to more than 2,500 people in Suffolk and Nassau Counties, Harlem and the boroughs of New York City,” officials noted.

The forum will take place at the Town of Babylon Annex Building in North Babylon at Phelps Lane Park starting at 6 p.m., and will run until 9 p.m. There will also be special book signing by the Sisters of Greater Long Island.

All are invited to attend. To RSVP and more information, please call 631-422-7642.