Perhaps you have heard the news of actress Angelina Jolie's decision to have a preventive double mastectomy after learning she carried the BRCA1 gene and had an 87 percent risk of breast cancer and a 50 percent risk of ovarian cancer. With the surgery, she writes in the New York Times, her risk for breast cancer is now 5%.
This talented and lovely young woman's decision was a very personal one which she chose to publicly share in order to help other women. I hope her mission is accomplished. I hope that dialogues are happening across the U.S. -- and due to her humanitarian work -- maybe even around the world regarding breast cancer and choices we now have the ability to make.
However, I don't want to lose the fact that many women are still unable to make such a choice. Testing for the BRCA genes is expensive and out of the reach of many of the women served by The Rose. While the Supreme Court is set to discuss the patent issues related to the genes, many women who carry it have to settle for living with the unknown.
Knowledge helps put us all on even ground, but economic realities keep us from all having the same choices. I'm glad that information is currently being disseminated in print and across the airwaves as a result of Ms. Jolie's actions. Health care reform has addressed that preventive actions such as the breast screenings we provide at The Rose are covered. But so many women are still uninsured. So many women are still at a loss for how to access not only coverage but information.
That's why The Rose has a commitment to Patient Navigation -- where we connect women with funding and treatment options for which they are usually totally unaware. That's why The Rose has a commitment to the underserved and the uninsured. And that's why we need you. For every three insured women -- women blessed with choices -- we can cover the costs of care for one uninsured. Thank you for making The Rose's quality, breast health care possible.
-- Dorothy Gibbons, Co-Founder and CEO of The Rose
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