Breast Cancer Awareness Month kicks off in the north country

Oct. 1—WATERTOWN — With the waves of the season's yellows, oranges and reds that paint the trees, a sea of pink makes its way to the north country each October for Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Today marks the first day of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and a few events kicked the month's efforts off right — one a longstanding and treasured tradition and a new one combining fun and awareness with an October staple: pumpkins.

The 21st annual Gouverneur Breast Cancer Walk took place this morning beginning at the Gouverneur Village Park. A 1-mile, noncompetitive walk, it's more symbolic than it is anything else, designed to show unity. It's amazing to see the sea of pink walking down Route 11, said Terry Pistolesi, board member of the Gouverneur Breast Cancer Fund.

The second annual Great Pumpkin Derby, which took place today in Watertown, helped to raise funds for Making Strides Against Breast Cancer and was organized by longtime Making Strides committee member Teri Walters. Also in Watertown, the annual Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk will take place at 10 a.m. Oct. 22 at the Alex T. Duffy Fairgrounds. Making Strides of the North Country is a celebration of survivorship in which participants and volunteers come together to honor cancer survivors, spread the word about reducing cancer risk, and raise money for the American Cancer Society. To learn more about Making Strides or for other information, call 800-227-2345.

Another facet of Making Strides and efforts to fundraise for the organization is the "Real Men Wear Pink" campaign that has helped bring in thousands of dollars over the past five years.

Jeff Barrett has been with the campaign since the beginning and has consistently been one of the top fundraisers. His involvement with the effort is made more personal due to his wife Michelle's journey with breast cancer.

"The thing with Making Strides is most of the money raised stays right in Northern New York and actually helps women locally," Mr. Barrett said. "It helps with transportation, education, advocacy and more."

Mrs. Barrett added that Making Strides helps women maintain positive self-esteem. When people have chemotherapy treatments and lose their hair, for example, Making Strides shows them how to apply makeup and how to make themselves feel more feminine again — giving them back the things that cancer took away, she said.

Mrs. Barrett's journey with breast cancer began around 2004 when the lump she had found turned out to be malignant. She had a lumpectomy surgery to remove the mass, chemotherapy and radiation. For almost 10 years, everything seemed clear and normal until she found another lump. Thinking it wasn't cancer because it was painful, she still went to get it checked out and found that while that particular lump wasn't of concern, another lump in the original breast that she didn't know was there ended up being malignant.

"That's when they suggested that I have a bilateral mastectomy because I had two different types of cancer in the same breast," she said. "They put me on preventative meds for a number of years; usually it's a five-year regimen but they said that because of the two types of cancer and one being so aggressive, that we'll stay on it for a while. So that's when we had the bilateral mastectomy. And people think of it as being a horrible thing, and really it isn't; anything is better than the alternative."

She noted that you just have to try to think positively through the whole thing. Since receiving the second diagnosis of cancer around 2015, Mrs. Barrett has been dealing with things as positively as she can. She ended up having a complete hysterectomy as well because the cancer was also attempting to start in her uterus.

As breast cancer survivors, family members, friends and medical professionals would agree, early detection is of great importance when it comes to any type of cancer. Both times Mrs. Barrett was diagnosed, they were lucky enough to catch it early so her treatments were geared toward getting rid of it. Mr. Barrett noted that a lot of women don't know where to turn when they're diagnosed, and said that Making Strides and the American Cancer Society is a great place to start.

He became involved with the "Real Men Wear Pink" campaign after Mrs. Barrett's second diagnosis.

"He spent years playing with bands and everything and announcing at racetracks and things, so he was used to being out in front of people. When the real men wear pink was offered to him to help out with it, it just seemed like a natural thing for him to do," Mrs. Barrett said. "He had a passion for the subject because of me, and we have multiple other people that we know that have had cancer. My best friend passed away from breast cancer."

The Barretts will both participate in the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk at the end of the month, the culmination of the month's awareness and fundraising efforts. Joined by around 19 other men committed to wearing pink for the month and raising money and awareness along the way, Mr. Barrett noted that he owns more pink clothing than any woman he knows, enough that he could wear a different shirt every day of the month and longer if he had to.

"Sometimes you get some goofy looks, but I made a dedication to do this and every year when this time rolls around you'll see me in a pink shirt every day of the week," he said. "I'm proud to be a part of this group of guys. It's amazing to see a bunch of men that are willing to wear pink for a month and really busting their butts to raise money."

New this year, along with the established "Real Men Wear Pink" campaign and many others who participate in the effort yearly, Making Strides has welcomed the "Real Kids Wear Pink" campaign to add even more participants to the cause. This year's inaugural group has 25 participants, many of whom will be present at this year's walk.

"It's really cool to hear the numbers come in; the amount of money that gets raised over the 30 or 35 days, that'll just shock you how much money comes in," Mr. Barrett said. "We honor the survivors that are there — we remember the ones that we've lost — but we always honor the survivors. We do a big group picture of all the ladies that are there that have been through it or are still going through it, and that'll bring some tears to your eyes. You feel bad for them, but you're proud they're there and that's why we do it, we're there to celebrate them."

Having been quite successful in the past with his fundraising efforts, ending up with a little over $13,300 last year thanks to the generosity of donors, Mr. Barrett said this year has started out a bit slow, but that all the guys involved with "Real Men Wear Pink" are great guys so even if he doesn't have a great year, he knows some of the others will push the volume up.

"It's all a team effort," he said. "All the guys involved, we all know each other and we needle each other and it is competitive to see who can get the most money, it's fun to have bragging rights when it's all over."

Running totals of amounts raised by different teams and individuals for Making Strides can be found online at wdt.me/MakingStrides.

Breast cancer became the most common cancer globally as of 2021, accounting for 12% of all new annual cancer cases worldwide, according to the World Health Organization. About 1 in 8 U.S. women will develop invasive breast cancer over the course of their lifetime, and in 2022, an estimated 287,850 new cases of invasive breast cancer are expected to be diagnosed in women in the U.S., along with 51,400 new cases of noninvasive breast cancer.

About 2,710 new cases of invasive breast cancer are expected to be diagnosed in men in 2022, and a man's lifetime risk of breast cancer is about 1 in 833.

For women in the U.S., breast cancer death rates are higher than those for any other cancer, besides lung cancer. As of January 2022, there are more than 3.8 million women with a history of breast cancer in the U.S., including women currently being treated and women who have finished treatment, according to breastcancer.org.

Medical clinics, hospitals, health care provider offices and imaging centers across the north country offer breast cancer screening. Patients are advised to talk to their health care provider about which tests are right for them, as well as when they should have them.

While Carthage Area Hospital normally has a breast cancer awareness event in October, it doesn't have anyone currently arranging community engagement events, so there will be no awareness event this year. As the hospital no longer has mammography, Elizabeth Wende Breast Care is available for mammographies in Carthage.

Dr. Stamatia Destounis, one of the breast radiologists with Elizabeth Wende out of the main office in Rochester, will mark her 30th year of service in July of next year. Active with the American College of Radiology and Society of Breast Imaging, she noted that they have been very active in promoting screening mammography for women of average risk starting at age 40, but also promoting screening earlier for higher risk women, whether because of family history, personal history or genetics.

"We advocate for a risk assessment evaluation with their primary care doctor, with their gynecologist or with their breast radiologists if they have one by the time they're 30," she said. "There are minority women, overlooked populations of women — the LGBTQ community, African American women, women of Jewish descent — women that need to have a conversation with their physician about their overall risk, so we advocate for that conversation to happen early."

People may not be aware of the history in their families, so it's good to get an idea of your family tree and your family history and then discuss that family history with your gynecologist or family doctor when you go in for your yearly visit, Dr. Destounis said.

Elizabeth Wende brought services to the Carthage area several years ago as they kept seeing patients from the north country driving to Rochester to be seen.

"We offer screening, we do 3D mammography at all our offices — every patient gets the benefit of the highest, the newest, the best technology for screening," Dr. Destounis said. "We offer screening breast ultrasound for women that have dense breast tissue found on a mammogram, so those women benefit from additional screening with ultrasound along with the 3D mammogram. If you need to have a genetic counselor, we have a very active genetics department that is located here in the main office, but many of our patients from the north country get a video conversation with a genetic counselor and they don't have to drive down. The only thing I would say, because we only have a single breast MRI and it's attached here to the main building, that's the only time, otherwise for bone density we offer that up in Carthage and we offer pretty much everything else but the MRI, and most patients are not going to require an MRI."

Elizabeth Wende has also partnered with a local cancer services program to offer free mammograms for women without adequate insurance or no insurance at all. If patients don't have insurance or are not sure they can afford their mammogram, they're encouraged to call 855-592-0830 so they can schedule an appointment.

While Dr. Destounis acknowledges that there is a lot of worry about getting a mammogram, she said the reality is, if a small tumor is found, whether you're 40, 60, 80, it's minimal treatment, minimal surgery and minimal follow up, as opposed to finding a tumor that has metastasized outside of the breast into lymph nodes or other parts of the body. In those later stages, the treatment is more toxic and invasive, and also the outcome is not as good, so the goal is to find tumors as small as possible, as early as possible.

"I think Breast Cancer Awareness Month is a time to consider yourself, your family, your friends, and if you're too afraid to do it by yourself, bring your friend or family member, bring your mom. Do it for your kids, and come in," Dr. Destounis said. "During Breast Cancer Awareness, you're always hearing about mammograms and breast cancer, and breast cancer is very treatable. That's what we want people to know. We want to find it with a mammogram if there's anything there so we can get rid of it faster, and then it can be minimal treatment."