For the 12th year in a row, St. Mary's Good Samaritan Hospital and Oconee Valley Healthcare are partnering to provide no-cost mammograms to uninsured women and raise awareness of breast cancer during National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. 

No-cost 3D mammograms will be provided to women in need at St. Mary’s Good Samaritan Hospital, 5401 Lake Oconee Parkway, Greensboro, Oct. 7-11. Appointments are required and will be scheduled on a first-call, first-served basis. To make an appointment, call St. Mary’s Good Samaritan Hospital at 706.453.5005 and reference the “Power of One.” The number of appointments available is limited.

To be eligible, women must be at least 40 years old, have no history of breast problems, be uninsured, have not received a mammogram in at least 12 months, be a resident of Greene County, and have a primary care physician or health care provider to receive the results. Women who don’t have a primary care provider are urged to contact Oconee Valley Healthcare at 706.453.1201 or the Greene County Health Department at 706.453.7561.

Women receiving the no-cost mammograms will receive state-of-the-art 3D mammography, which has been shown to be about 40 percent more effective than 2D mammography in finding tumors. It also reduces the number of false alarms compared to 2D imaging.

Breast cancer is the second most common kind of cancer in America, and about 1 in 8 women born today in the United States will develop breast cancer at some point in their life. Breast cancer is even more serious in Greene County, where the death rate is more than three times the state and national average. It takes a particularly high toll among African-American women. 

The good news is that most women can survive breast cancer if it’s found and treated early. Power of ONE encourages women to get a mammogram once a year and perform a breast self-exam once a month. Talk to a doctor about your risk for breast cancer, especially if a close family member has had breast or ovarian cancer. Good Samaritan Hospital’s no-cost mammogram program is always on, always available, all year long.

For more information or to learn how you can get involved, contact Bria Brown at 706.453.5167 or Allison Carter at 706.454.5183.