ORLAND PARK, IL (May 18, 2009) \u2013 Emmanuel Covenant Church was one of the newest churches to take part in Pin-A-Sister Sunday, an interfaith statewide effort to highlight racial disparity in mortality rates from breast cancer among women of color.<\/p>\n
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More than 500,000 women participated in the Mother\u2019s Day event, according to the sponsor Access Community Health Network (ACCESS), which launched the initiative in partnership with Stand Against Cancer, a state-funded collaboration between Illinois faith-based, health care, and community-based organizations. The first event was held in 2007.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a pastor and community leader it is important that I provide encouragement and resources for women to take care of themselves and get regular mammograms and Pap smears,\u201d says Pastor Jocelyn Thornton.<\/p>\n
African American women are far less likely to get breast cancer than white women, but they are 116% more likely to die from this devastating disease, according to a 2005 study by the Metropolitan Chicago Breast Cancer Task Force. Mortality rates for Hispanic women are similarly high.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile there have been many advances in mammography screening, which leads to early detection, a large segment of African American and Hispanic women in particular are still losing their lives to breast cancer,\u201d said Donna Thompson, CEO of ACCESS. \u201cWe want mothers who were in church this Mother\u2019s Day to be around to celebrate the next Mother\u2019s Day.\u201d<\/p>\n