Free mobile breast cancer screening for Sacramento LGBT community to be available this fall

Sacramento’s Albie Aware Breast Cancer Foundation received a $25,000 grant to provide mobile mammograms and follow up services to at least 90 members of the LGBTQ+ community.

The foundation has three free mobile mammogram events planned between October 2022 and October 2023, each will serve 30 people. Reservations are preferred but walk ins will be accepted, said Courtney Quinn, Albie Aware’s executive director, in an email statement.. An online sign up form will be available closer to the event date.

On Oct. 20 the foundation is partnering with Sacramento’s LGBT Community Center, on 20th Street, to host a virtual breast cancer screening event. At least one mobile mammogram unit will be highlighted for the attendees.

“We are working closely with the LGBT Center to identify other locations that have the highest un-met need,” Quinn wrote in an email to The Bee.

Ninety is the lowest estimated number of people the program plans to help, according to a news release..

The Prevent Cancer Foundation awarded 10 one-year grants for LGBTQ+ cancer prevention and early detection programs throughout the United States. The LGBTQ+ community has higher risk factors for breast cancer and less access to screenings, according to a press release.

The group announced the grant award on Facebook after a press conference on Wednesday with Prevent Cancer Foundation’s Congressional Families Cancer Prevention Program. The event was held at Mulvaney’s B&L in midtown Sacramento.

People are able to examine themselves for signs of breast cancer at home. Mayo Clinic suggests asking your doctor for a demonstration before performing one by yourself.

Mayo Clinic suggests these tips when performing a self-exam:

• Decide if you want to examine yourself lying down or in the shower. Breast tissue is thinner and easier to feel when lying down. In the shower, soap can help your fingers guide more smoothly across skin when examining.
• Use the pads of your three middle fingers, or a sensitive part of your hand like the palm, or back of your fingers to examine.
  
  
• Use different pressure levels to examine: light pressure to feel the skin, medium pressure to feel deeper than the skin, firm pressure for the tissue closest to the chest and ribs.
• Take your time.
• Follow a pattern by imaging your breast as a pie with sections. Start the exam near the collarbone, move in towards the nipple and then move on to the next section.

This is a condensed list of signs Mayo Clinic says to contact your doctor about:

• A hard lump or knot near your underarm.
• Changes in the way your breasts look or feel, including thickening or prominent fullness that is different from the surrounding tissue.
• Dimples, puckers, bulges or ridges on the skin of your breast.

Speak with a doctor if you have concerns about painful or noticeable changes to your breasts.

This story was originally published August 26, 2022 at 11:08 AM.