{"id":16606,"date":"2015-06-12T10:01:18","date_gmt":"2015-06-12T15:01:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=16606"},"modified":"2015-06-12T10:01:18","modified_gmt":"2015-06-12T15:01:18","slug":"videosisters-working-it-out-helping-to-save-womens-lives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/videosisters-working-it-out-helping-to-save-womens-lives\/","title":{"rendered":"Video: Sisters Working It Out &#8211; helping to save women&#8217;s lives"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By Angela Barnes<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Sisters Working It Out: helping to save women&#039;s lives through early detection, breast exams and self-advocacy\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/130486055?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>A Chicago organization is helping to save women\u2019s lives through\u00a0 breast exams, primarily in underserved communities. Here is how one woman\u2019s life was saved because of its efforts.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was 52 years old when I was diagnosed with breast cancer,\u201d said Nadine Willis, a\u00a0seven-year breast cancer survivor.<\/p>\n<p>Yet she had never had a mammogram as of 2008.\u00a0While attending her churches yearly health fair that year, she learned about Sisters Working It Out and the free breast exams provided inside a mobile mammography unit. She decided to finally get checked, not realizing that her decision would change her life forever.<\/p>\n<p>Sisters Working It Out (SWIO)-Health Advocacy in Motion is a non-profit dedicated to finding breast cancer early, when it is most curable. \u00a0 Dr. Monica Peek, associate professor of medicine at the University of Chicago founded the women\u2019s organization in 2001.<\/p>\n<p>SWIO brings together everyday women with a hybrid of expertise and a passion for outreach, education and early breast cancer detection.\u00a0 \u201cSome of us have health backgrounds such as physicians, nurses or mental health counselors,\u201d said Peek. \u201cAnd some of us are teachers or just everyday women.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>No matter the women\u2019s background, Peek said their goal is to spread the message that it\u2019s important for every woman to get screened and understand their personal health.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe purpose of our group is to train women to reach all parts of the Chicago community to do health and outreach, particularly in breast health and breast cancer,\u201d\u00a0Peek said.<\/p>\n<p>Breast cancer is one of the leading causes of death among women. The National Cancer Institute estimates there will be nearly 232,000 new cases of breast cancer and 40,000 deaths among women in 2015, but there are significant disparities in mortality rates among Black women.<\/p>\n<p>As a disparity researcher, Peek said her job is to try and understand some of the reasons why and to create interventions and problem solving solutions for the differences that she sees in the health of\u00a0African Americans.<\/p>\n<p>After moving to Chicago in 2001, Peek\u00a0saw drastic differences in health care between the ethnic groups.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne of the most striking things I noticed were the disparity in breast cancer outcomes,\u201d\u00a0Peek said. \u201cThat inspired me to want to work in this area in particular.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Chicago has many disparity death rates. Although white women are more likely to be diagnosed with breast cancer, African American women have the highest breast cancer mortality rate &#8211;\u00a0 25 percent higher than for white females, according to the\u00a0National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). They are more likely to die of breast cancer than any other ethnic group.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe want to break down a lot of misinformation and myths in the community,\u201d said Peek. \u201cWe try to put a face of health to what people associate with things that are very scary,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n<p>While working in various communities helping to bring awareness to women\u2019s health care and preventive health management, Peek\u2019s role changed from physician\/researcher to patient.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was doing my own routine self breast exam when I noticed a lump in one of my breasts,\u201d said Peek. \u201cWithin two weeks of me doing an exam at home, I actually had a scheduled mastectomy on the right breast.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She was diagnosed at age 35, several years after she started the organization.<\/p>\n<p>SWIO strives to support women and infuse positive messages in the community through social support, education, health fairs, screening events\u00a0wherever their services are needed. Providing free medical services to the community, SWIO utilizes a local health center to get more women connected to the organization and involved in their own health care.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_16612\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-16612\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2015\/06\/Beulah-breast-educRESZE1.jpg\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-16612\" src=\"http:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2015\/06\/Beulah-breast-educRESZE1-300x170.jpg\" alt=\"Beulah Brent explains different breast MammaCare  lump stages at a health fair. (Angela Barnes\/Medill)\" width=\"300\" height=\"170\" srcset=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2015\/06\/Beulah-breast-educRESZE1-300x170.jpg 300w, https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2015\/06\/Beulah-breast-educRESZE1-1024x582.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2015\/06\/Beulah-breast-educRESZE1.jpg 1100w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-16612\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Beulah Brent explains different breast MammaCare lump stages at a health fair. (Angela Barnes\/Medill)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cOur purpose is to empower and educate the women&#8221; who may not be aware of their breast cancer risk, \u00a0said Beulah Brent, president of SWIO and health care manager at Access Grand B health center\u00a0on the South Side of Chicago. \u201cWe\u2019re putting ourselves out there to educate these women,\u201d Beulah added.<\/p>\n<p>Chicago is plagued with many underserved communities that lack health services.<\/p>\n<p>According to Brent,\u00a0 the Access health center serves as a conduit to bring access to women and provide them with the necessary services they need.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe actually link our women to our service, \u201c said Brent. \u201cOnce we sign them up and they need that mammogram and they need that Pap smear, we actually give them an appointment to see our providers here.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBreast cancer is not a death sentence,\u201d said an emotional Peek, a 10-year-breast cancer survivor.<\/p>\n<p>Through routine screening and family risk factors many women\u2019s lives can be spared, said Peek. If detected early, the survival rate is extremely high.<\/p>\n<p>SWIO is helping to spring women into action about their health, giving them tools for early detection, prevention and self-advocacy.<\/p>\n<p>The organization wants women to know that they are a sisterhood of women getting tested every year and working to help make sure other women are doing the same.<\/p>\n<p>For more information about SWIO and it\u2019s services log onto <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sistersworkingitout.org\">www.sistersworkingitout.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div id=\"featurecaption\">\n<p>Photo at top: SWIO a women&#8217;s health outreach organization is helping to save women&#8217;s lives one breast exam at a time. (SWIO\/Courtesy)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Angela Barnes A Chicago organization is helping to save women\u2019s lives through\u00a0 breast exams, primarily in underserved communities. Here is how one woman\u2019s life was saved because of its efforts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":144,"featured_media":16607,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[452,29,436],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-beyond-chicago","category-health-and-science","category-spring-2015"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Video: Sisters Working It Out - helping to save women&#039;s lives - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/videosisters-working-it-out-helping-to-save-womens-lives\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Video: Sisters Working It Out - helping to save women&#039;s lives - Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Angela Barnes A Chicago organization is helping to save women\u2019s lives through\u00a0 breast exams, primarily in underserved communities. 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