Eva M. Clayton: “as you are aware, October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Why is the issue so important? It is important…”

“as you are aware, October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Why is the issue so important? It is important because breast cancer is the most common major cancer for women. Every 3 minutes, a woman in the United States is diagnosed with breast cancer. This devastating disease is the second leading cause of death among cancer victims overall. Today there are more than 2.6 million women living with breast cancer, women who struggle daily against the ravages of this killing disease. Of those 2.6 million American women, 71,000 of them are in North Carolina. Many of these aforementioned women are undiagnosed, do not know they have the disease. Fortunately, through research developments, we have effective methods of detection that are improving steadily. However, no technique, no matter how effective, can diagnose women who do not have adequate access to health care. Each year on average 182,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer. Of that total, 16,000 are Afro-American and over 4,900 of them are from North Carolina. While the prognosis is good for many women with breast cancer, it often proves fatal for those women whose cancer is not discovered until it is very late in their lives. Mr. Speaker, the losses we have as a Nation suffered are staggering as a result of this. Each year on average nearly 44,000 women succumb to breast cancer; 44,000 mothers, sisters, daughters, spouses, partners and friends.”