Press Releases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Friday, June 3, 2005
Contacts: Dr. Carolyn Subin, (914) 234-9744; Marisa Walker, Breast Cancer Fund, (415) 346-8223 x17

Women Prisoners “Climb” in Support of Breast Cancer Survivor

Prisoners—many touched by cancer—will help raise funds for popular staff member’s Mt. Rainier climb

NEW YORK—Scores of female prisoners will undertake a symbolic mountain climb at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility in Westchester County, N.Y., in support of breast cancer prevention.

The women have rallied behind walkathon organizer Dr. Carolyn Subin, the facility’s Mental Health Unit program director, who will scale Mt. Rainier, Wash., with a team of 40 breast cancer survivors and their supporters in July. The prison walkathon will take place on Saturday, June 18 at 8 a.m.

A breast cancer survivor, Subin is participating in the Breast Cancer Fund’s 10th anniversary “Climb Against the Odds” expedition to educate the public about the environmental and other preventable causes of the disease. The Mt. Rainier team hopes to raise $500,000 to fund the organization’s advocacy work for breast cancer prevention.

The Bedford Hills Correctional Facility inmates and staff will join this effort with a “climb” of their own. Each lap around the prison yard will symbolize 1,000 feet of Subin’s 14,410-foot Mt. Rainier journey. Every woman who completes the walkathon will have her name—or the name of her loved one—inscribed on a prayer flag that Subin will carry to the top of Mt. Rainier. The Bedford Hills Correctional Facility team members have also volunteered to raise money by asking their friends and family to contribute in support of their “climb.”

Cancer resonates deeply with Bedford Hill’s women prisoners, since most have either had cancer themselves or known someone who has. Subin feels that those personal connections and desire to take action is fueling interest in the walkathon.

“I feel incredibly lucky that my cancer was treated successfully and I have been cancer-free for 13 years,” said Subin. “But I’m well aware that many others have not been as fortunate and will not be in the future without a concerted effort at eliminating the environmental causes of this disease.”

Subin was moved to join the Climb Against the Odds team by the words of Breast Cancer Fund founder, Andrea Martin: “The Breast Cancer Fund embraces mountain climbing as a metaphor for the critical work we are doing to prevent this devastating disease. We climb like we face cancer – one step at a time, celebrating our courage and our strength.”

This year, 40,000 women in the United States will die from breast cancer – one death every 13 minutes. In the past 50 years, a women’s lifetime risk of breast cancer more than tripled in the United States, to one in seven today. As many as 50 percent of breast cancer cases remain unexplained by personal characteristics and other traditionally-accepted risk factors; epidemiologists and other scientists increasingly believe that many cases are linked to environmental factors.

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