SEATTLE, Dec. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- A gift of $800,000 from the Seattle
division of Safeway Inc. to the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance (SCCA) will
bring a mobile-mammography clinic with the latest diagnostic-technology
tools to women who may not otherwise be screened for breast cancer.
Greg Sparks, president of Safeway's Seattle division, announced the
gift today at a Safeway store on Seattle's Queen Anne Hill. Sparks
displayed a check representative of the funds raised through a company-wide
campaign and presented an artist's conception of the mobile clinic.
"We've been looking forward to this day for quite some time," Sparks
said. "Our contribution is a true reflection of the passion our employees
and customers have for bridging the gap between research and a cure for
breast cancer. Providing funds to purchase a mobile-mammography van allows
all our contributors the opportunity to see our dollars at work."
Starting in 2007, the clinic on wheels will reach women who lack easy
access to mammograms due to difficulties with transportation, child care,
work or other issues. The van, which will accommodate up to 35 women a day,
is designed to fill a critical need by significantly increasing the number
of women being screened with digital mammography.
"Working with the SCCA to institute this innovative program is a dream
fulfilled for our employees and customers," said Cherie Myers, director of
Public & Government Affairs for Safeway's Seattle division. "The digital
mobile-mammography clinic will allow us to reach out to women who for
various reasons have difficulty traveling to be screened for breast cancer.
The more women who are screened, the more cancers can be detected early and
treated when the odds of a disease-free life are substantially increased."
The clinic will be equipped with the most up-to-date digital
technology, allowing mammograms to be transmitted via satellite to SCCA and
University of Washington physicians for interpretation. Receiving a
mammogram aboard a mobile clinic typically takes between 15 and 20 minutes.
Digital mammography can detect up to 28 percent more cancers than the
traditional film method in certain groups of women. Those groups include
young women and those with dense breast tissue, women who have not yet
reached menopause, and women under 50.
The mobile-mammography clinic will be directed by Connie Lehman, M.D.,
Ph.D., who also directs breast imaging at the SCCA and the Department of
Radiology at the University of Washington School of Medicine.
"We are extremely grateful to Safeway for its generous and visionary
support of breast-cancer diagnosis and treatment," Lehman said. "With this
project, Safeway provides more women with the opportunity to be screened
through digital mammography, the most advanced technology for detection of
breast cancer. We know that early detection is critical to improving
overall survival rates for breast and other cancers. If breast cancer is
detected early, the five-year survival rate is more than 98 percent."
Annual mammography screening is recommended for women 40 and older.
Washington state has the highest per-capita incidence of breast cancer in
the United States, yet many women in the state do not receive annual
mammograms.
Mammography read by radiology specialists (rather than generalists)
identifies more cancers with fewer callbacks for follow-up mammograms. Only
mammography specialists will read the images generated by the Safeway-
sponsored SCCA mobile-mammography unit.
Safeway has built its reputation for supporting humanitarian causes by
involving employees through internal programs including the Safeway
Foundation and Charities of Choice. Through such programs, employees can
determine where their own charitable contributions will be directed.
The Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, established in 1998, unites the adult
and pediatric cancer-care services of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research
Center, UW Medicine and Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center. A
major focus of SCCA is to speed the transfer of new diagnostic and
treatment techniques from the research setting to the patient bedside while
providing premier, patient-focused cancer care. Patients who come to SCCA
receive the latest research-based cancer therapies as well as cutting-edge
treatments for a number of non-malignant diseases under development by its
partner organizations. SCCA has three clinical-care sites: an outpatient
clinic on the Fred Hutchinson campus, a pediatric-inpatient unit at
Children's and an adult- inpatient unit at UW Medical Center. For more
information about SCCA, visit http://www.seattlecca.org .
The Safeway Foundation, working in partnership with local
organizations, schools and individuals, seeks to improve the quality of
life in the communities we serve. By carefully directing fundraising
efforts and the generous contributions of the company's employees and
customers, the foundation supports a variety of worthy causes including
vital health and human services such as women's shelters, health screening
and child care. Over the past four years, the Foundation has donated more
than $29 million toward efforts to improve detection and treatment of
breast cancer and prostate cancer. For more information please visit
http://www.safewayfoundation.org .
Safeway Inc. is a Fortune 50 company and one of the largest food and
drug retailers in North America, based on sales. The company operates 1,775
stores in the United States and Canada and had annual sales of $38.4
billion in 2005. The company's common stock is traded on the New York Stock
Exchange under the symbol SWY. Safeway's Seattle Division operates 2300
stories in Washington, Alaska, Montana and Idaho.
Media Contact:
Dean Forbes, (206) 667-2896
SOURCE Seattle Cancer Care Alliance
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Related links:
http://www.seattlecca.org
http://www.safewayfoundation.org
CONTACT:
Dean Forbes, +1-206-667-2896, for Seattle
Cancer Care Alliance
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