Pink bus spreads the word about breast health
By Tiffany Lucke
The Big Pink Bus rolled into Grand Forks bringing information and awareness about breast health and cancer preventatives to town last Monday morning.
Arriving outside of the CIBC building, the bus welcomed residents to learn about how to prevent breast cancer and the importance of breast screening and mammogram tests.
Amber Iowes and Roshanae Heed walked visitors through the bus and welcomed women to book their mammogram appointments right there. Deborah Baker with the Prevention Connection, a new cancer campaign for firefighters, shared her information with the staff about their program as well.
The Bus has thousands of signatures from people who have visited written all over the exterior of the vehicle. Inside, there were brochures, breast cancer trivia game, and mammogram sign up information. The Bus travelled on to Trail after its stop in Grand Forks.
The Pink Tour is run by the B.C. / Yukon Chapter of the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation. It is a province-wide education initiative to encourage women 40 – 79 years of age to take advantage of BC's free screening mammography program. Currently only 51 percent of women in B.C. who should go for a regular mammogram, actually do. According to World Health Organization investigations, if 70 percent of eligible women went for one, we could reduce the number of deaths from breast cancer by up to one third.