We've had a great time over the past 30-days sharing breast cancer awareness stories online and on 41 Action News!
My husband Ed and I celebrated my five year anniversary as a breast cancer survivor by asking others to make a house call or telephone call to at least three friends or relatives and ask them to do their monthly breast self-exams and get their annual mammograms.
Click here to watch Newsome's House Calls Facebook conversations.
The response has been tremendous.
Every day at 9 a.m. in June we were live on our 41 Action News Facebook page with breast cancer survivors and people involved in the battle against breast cancer coming to our home.
We also did a series of stories on the air about breast cancer research, the breast cancer death rate in Wyandotte County and the language barrier and financial barriers that keeps some people from accessing breast care screening services.
Click here to view previous coverage.
The Coalition of Hispanic Women against Cancer said they had a great response to our story and now that more women know about their organization and the need for early detection they are expecting more women to come to their organization for help.
Peggy Miller, Director of her son's foundation, the Bret Miller 1-T Foundation said our stories helped men realize that they are at risk and we helped me know how to do self-exams.
After watching our first Newsome's House Calls on Facebook, Robin posted on Ed's Facebook page that she cried and decided to call and make an appointment right away to get her mammogram.
A woman, I'm calling L.M., poured out her heart to me in an email--saying that she watched my story on breast cancer and divorce.
She told me that she has stage 4 breast cancer and her husband of 4 years divorced her. The women in featured in my story, Tracey Patch, said she would call and encourage L.M.
Sharon Payne with BraCoutureKC also said she would connect L.M. with some women who went through a divorce following their breast cancer diagnosis!
One viewer,Angie Washington, sent us an email saying that she is launching her own campaign to continue Newsome's House calls through December.
In our final episode, Ed responded to a question we are often asked. People want to know how to help someone with breast cancer. Ed told people to remember the word BLACK.
B- Be there, spend time with the person
L-Listen to the person-- you don't have to try to talk all the time
A- Assure them that you will be there
C- See something that needs to be done and do it. Don't wait to be asked to help and don't ask the person to call you if they need help.
K- Kick breast cancer together.
Ed and I want to thank everyone who whelped us with Newsome's House Calls.
We could not have done it without support from 41 Action News managers, producers, and editors.
We want to thank Jerry Newsome and Joyce Hargrove who faithfully took on the role of photographer everyday for the live Newsome's House Calls on Facebook.
We also thank everyone for watching our stories and sending us notes and emails and calling us.
If you missed any of our stories on the air or live Facebook chats, you can find them here.
We are leaving everyone with the final thought that Ed and I believe that men and women should not be afraid of being diagnosed with breast cancer; they should be afraid of finding out they have breast cancer too late to have a fighting chance beating it!
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Cynthia Newsome can be reached at Cynthia.Newsome@kshb.com.
