Sisters team up for mammograms

Daily American Republic

POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. -- Six sisters, five of them from the Piedmont, Mo., and Patterson, Mo., area, get together annually for a trip into Poplar Bluff. They have lunch, they shop.

But that's not what draws them here.

These gals team up for their annual mammogram. This year the sisters were tested in October, which is also Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

"Our oldest sister had breast cancer in 1979 and died three years later. She did not get mammograms," said Josephine Pevril of rural Piedmont. "It was kind of a wake-up call for the rest of us."

Pevril was living in Granite City, Ill., when her sister, Bertha Montgomery, also of Granite City, was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 53. Pevril looked after her sister for over two years; the last year she visited her two or more times daily.

After her sister died, Pevril called her five other sisters and urged them to have yearly mammograms. The sisters range in age from 53 to 77.

"I would call and make appointments, and we would make it a fun day of it, have lunch and shop," Pevril said. "It was one way to make sure they'll get them. It started out with three of us going together, it increased to four, finally we got to telling the others if you're not there, you will be the topic of the day. Gradually we got them all to go."