Jenny Lang, the medical director at La Clínica del Pueblo, has been wanting to offer better access to breast cancer screening for years. So she and her team started fundraising earlier this year to offer free annual mammograms for all their women patients.
“It's the one thing that I always haven't been able to provide to my patients, and [I] feel like it needs to happen,” Lang said.
For the last decade, La Clínica del Pueblo has offered free and low-cost health services to the Latino community in Carbondale. Right now, Lang said the clinic offers a “full spectrum of women's health, from adolescence to postmenopausal.” They also offer screenings for other types of cancer, like colorectal.
But mammograms have long been a gap — the clinic does not have the capacity to offer the service in-house and referring to other providers can come with a price tag of several hundred dollars. Access to the screening service is especially important to the Latina women it serves, who are often diagnosed at later stages, according to the American Cancer Society.
Lang, whose sister died from breast cancer, said it’s a cause that’s personal for her and other staff at La Clínica.
“I have had actually several young Latina women over my career in the Roaring Fork Valley who've been diagnosed in their thirties,” she said. “It's heartbreaking.”
She added that catching breast cancer early is a win-win for medical providers and patients.
“The sooner we can detect cancer, the less costly, the better outcomes,” Lang said.
So far, La Clínica has raised about 15% of its initial $200,000 goal. That money has all come from private donors, but the clinic has also applied for grants from organizations like the National Association of Free & Charitable Clinics. La Clínica has also received support from the Aspen Valley and Valley View hospitals to subsidize the cost of mammograms for the clinic.
Lang said she wants to start the service as soon as possible — even before they hit their fundraising goal. She’s meeting with staff at Aspen Valley this week and Valley View next week to sort out some of the final details.
Once it’s up and running, she also wants to host “mammogram parties,” to incentivize patients who might be reluctant to seek out the service on their own.
