Free Screenings for Bushwick Women During National Breast Cancer Awareness Month

BUSHWICK, BROOKLYN — October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and the American-Italian Cancer Foundation (AICF) is providing free mammograms through its Mobile Care Clinic "to medically under-served women" in Bushwick.

To be eligible for a free clinical breast exam from AICF, women must be 40 years or older, have not received a mammogram during the past 12 months and have a New York City mailing address.

AICF will host 22 free screenings in October throughout New York City, with five screening events scheduled for Brooklyn.

The Mobile Care Clinic visits Bushwick on Wednesday, Oct. 19, from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., at I.S. 162 located at 1390 Willoughby Ave.

Although walk-ins are accommodated when possible, the free clinic sees patients by appointment in order to reduce wait times. To schedule your screening ahead of time call 1-877-628-9090; intake forms are available here.

One in eight women in the U.S. will be diagnosed with breast cancer; the good news is that and early-stage detection and treatment works. There's nearly 3 million survivors living in the U.S. alone.

An estimated 231,840 new cases of invasive breast cancer were to be diagnosed among U.S. women in 2015, according to cancer.org, and more than 40,000 cases were estimated to result in death.

Although Caucasian women are diagnosed with breast cancer at a higher rate, African American women are more likely to die from breast cancer. With early-stage detection and treatment, the five-year relative survival rate is 99 percent.

Lead image courtesy of Esther Max/Flickr.