The Moorestown girls volleyball team will host a fundraiser for breast cancer awareness at the MAC center of Moorestown High School on Friday, Oct. 11.
Junior varsity and freshmen players will warm up in their shirts at 3:10 p.m., with the games starting at 3:30. Varsity will follow. The annual event takes place before and during a regular season match with Cinnaminson High School and is sponsored by Pinnacle Wealth Partners at UBS Financial.
“We want it to be fun, we want the girls to have fun with it, considering this is a serious thing we’re talking about,” said event chair Jessica DeBear, a breast cancer survivor.
Funds raised will support Virtua’s Mobile Health and Cancer Screening Unit. Launched in 2023, the 40-foot unit offers clinicians and equipment for screenings and exams of people uninsured or underinsured and eligible for free tests.
Screenings offered include 3D mammography, clinical breast exams, gynecological exams, pap tests to detect cervical cancer and colorectal screenings with a take-home stool kit or colonoscopy referrals, according to www.virtua.org/Services/Cancer-Care/Mobile-Health-and-Cancer-Screening-Unit.
“It’s the spirit of giving back,” DeBear explained. “It’s the spirit of supporting something that matters, particularly to women. As young women, it’s important to not have any kind of taboos around breast health.”
October is also Breast Cancer Awareness Month. According to the American Cancer Society and the National Breast Cancer Foundation, when breast cancer is detected early and in the localized stage, the five-year relative survival rate is 99%. Early detection includes monthly breast self-exams and regularly scheduled clinical breast exams and mammograms.
Breast Cancer Awareness Month aims to promote screening and prevention of the disease, which affects 2.3 million women worldwide, according to breastcancer.org. The month features several campaigns and programs – conducted by groups ranging from breast cancer advocacy organizations to local community organizations to major retailers – aimed at supporting people diagnosed with breast cancer.
The awareness campaign involves fundraising for breast cancer research and encouraging women to go for regular breast cancer screening starting at age 40 or earlier, depending on personal breast cancer risk.
“I think it should be viewed as a celebration of the technology that we do have for women,” DeBear noted. “We have these things available, so you need to go out and do it. You need to go out and take care of it and if nothing else, other than the message to give to these teenage girls that it’s important, there’s something to be said for that, too.”
