�Advocate, Motivate, Donate�

Pink Up at Saint Franics provides life-saving services

�Organize, agitate, educate must be our war cry.�

Susan B. Anthony said that, and it is precisely what Saint Francis Healthcare System and the Saint Francis Foundation does with the Pink Up campaign for breast cancer awareness.

Saint Francis launched the Pink Up campaign in 2010 to raise awareness in the Southeast Missouri region about the importance of early detection of breast cancer. Over the years, the campaign has evolved in several significant ways. Not only do donations provide for the purchase of state-of-the-art medical equipment and free mammograms for anyone, regardless of ability to pay, the funding also helps women through the next stages of testing if a mammogram shows an abnormality. The addition of a mobile mammography van in 2017 provided an access point to 180 rural women who would otherwise not have the opportunity to take advantage of the free screening.

�The year-round campaign has enabled the foundation to raise and spend 1.3 million dollars to support breast cancer advocacy and treatment in our communities, with 100 percent of the funds staying local,� says Jimmy Wilferth, vice president of the Saint Francis Foundation and Marketing.

As for future plans, Wilferth says he is pleased with the awareness the Pink Up campaign brings to the region, but the foundation members are always asking themselves how they can do better. For example, the addition of the mobile mammogram van was vital as they realized not everyone in the region was able to travel to a participating facility; lack of transportation, they believed, should not stand in the way of a potentially life-saving screening. With the success of the Pink Up campaign in bringing awareness and screening for breast cancer, Wilferth also expects to see expanding awareness and screening for lung, prostate and colon cancer, which are other major cancers in the region.

The Pink Up campaign is designed around the principles �advocate, motivate and donate,� but does so in a way that brings the whole community together.

�It is an empowering campaign,� Wilferth says. �We are proud to serve not only the survivors, but also those that have experienced loss.�

Approximately 75-80 percent of donations come from the support of local businesses in the five-state region. This major support, along with the support of area residents, has allowed the Pink Up campaign to provide 4,100 free mammograms since 2010.

More information about upcoming Pink Up events can be found at pinkup.org.