Team members at University of Maryland Shore Medical Center at Chestertown joined forces last week to highlight October as Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Representatives of The Leh Women’s Center, The Chester River Health Foundation, Rural Health Care Transformation, Radiology, Mobile Wellness and Surgery were on hand for a brief ceremony at the “pink ribbon tree” in Chestertown’s Memorial Park. The tree was chosen and decorated with assistance from the Chestertown Garden Club and the Town of Chestertown.
L-R: Chester River Health Foundation Board members Earle Runde, Carol Droge, Sandy Bjork and Bob Roth (chair); Rural Health Care Transformation Director Lara Wilson; Mobile Wellness Team Nurse Manager Emily Welsh, RN; Nelson Goldberg, MD, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeon; and Outpatient Imaging Manager Kelly Bottomley.
Event chair Lara Wilson, Director of Rural Health Care Transformation for UM Shore Regional Health, stressed the importance of breast cancer screening. She thanked Chestertown clinical and non-clinical team members and Kent County Health Department staff for working to make sure women in Kent and northern Queen Anne’s counties have access to annual mammograms. She also expressed appreciation for the Chester River Health Foundation’s leadership role in the establishment of the Leh Women’s Center, which provides more than 2,300 mammograms each year; and to the Women & Girls Fund of the Mid-Shore for their $20,000 grant benefitting the Wellness for Women Program, which provides community outreach and financial support to women facing obstacles to affordable breast cancer screening.
Nelson Goldberg, MD, Professor of Surgery at the UM School of Medicine and Plastic Surgeon at University of Maryland Shore Medical Center at Chestertown, helps care for patients receiving reconstructive surgery after treatment for breast cancer. He spoke tothe group about risks for breast cancer, including increased age, smoking, obesity, alcohol use and aging.
Sheila Dixon, Connie Branham, Jordon Boone, Susan Herr and Brenda Ewing — all members of the Leh Women’s Center team since the Center opened nine years ago — promote Breast Cancer Awareness Month as the perfect time to schedule their annual mammogram. (Not shown: Nelson Goldberg, MD)
“The bottom line is that one in eight women will get breast cancer, but annual screening can catch the disease early when treatment is likely to be most successful,” he said.
Bob Roth, Chair of the Chester River Health Foundation, which supports UM Shore Regional Health,highlighted the fundraising efforts that made possible the establishment of theLeh Women’s Center’s nearly a decade ago, as well as renovations and equipment purchases in the years since.
Kelly Bottomley, Outpatient Imaging Manager, commended the Leh Women’s Center and Radiology team members who have worked together for the past nine years to provide mammograms.
“I’m proud to say that all of the original team members when the Center opened are still with us, providing exceptional care to our community,” said Bottomley.
About University of Maryland Shore Regional Health
As part of the University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS), University of Maryland Shore Regional Health is the principal provider of comprehensive health care services for more than 170,000 residents of Caroline, Dorchester, Kent, Queen Anne’s and Talbot counties on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. UM Shore Regional Health’s team of more than 2,200 employees, medical staff, board members and volunteers work with various community partners to fulfill the organization’s mission of Creating Healthier Communities Together.
About the University of Maryland Medical System
The University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS) is an academic private health system, focused on delivering compassionate, high quality care and putting discovery and innovation into practice at the bedside. Partnering with the University of Maryland School of Medicine and University of Maryland, Baltimore who educate the state’s future health care professionals, UMMS is an integrated network of care, delivering 25 percent of all hospital care in urban, suburban and rural communities across the state of Maryland. UMMS puts academic medicine within reach through primary and specialty care delivered at 11 hospitals, including the flagship University of Maryland Medical Center, the System’s anchor institution in downtown Baltimore, as well as through a network of University of Maryland Urgent Care centers and more than 150 other locations in 13 counties. For more information, visit www.umms.org.
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