Y-ME
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Y-ME National Breast Cancer Organization is an American charity that raises money for breast cancer research and is an active educational and support organization for patients and survivors.
It has affiliates all throughout the United States, which provide peer support, educational programs, and coordinate advocacy efforts.
Y-ME was founded in 1978 as Why Me by Ann Marcou (1932-2004) and Mimi Kaplan (d. 1982), fellow breast cancer patients at Governors State University, and held its first meetings at the YWCA in Park Forest, Illinois. In the early 1980s it began a 24-hour breast cancer hotline staffed solely by survivors of the illness (who are trained as peer counselors), a service which now handles over 25,000 calls every year in more than 150 languages. The Chicagoland chapters hold a Mother's Day race on the Lake Michigan shore that now attracts over 25,000 participants.[1]
Y-ME programs extend to a Match Program for partners of patients, a needs-based Wig and Prosthesis Bank, a monthly ShareRing Network teleconference, and programs for the medically under-served called A Day for You and Friends of Ann & Mimi. The Y-ME Advocacy Program lobbies for more research funding and support for scientific studies.[2]
Y-ME gained national attention through its efforts to educate women and medical authorities about the risks of silicon breast implants, leading a cadre of 11 major organizations including the American Cancer Society in asking the Food and Drug Administration for a review of implant safety.[3]
Y-ME's symbol is the pink awareness ribbon, and the organization partners with corporate sponsors to offer products displaying the ribbon or in pink. Corporate sponsors include McDonald's, Panera Bread and Walgreen's. The Olivia Newton-John album Grace and Gratitude was produced for exclusive sale in Walgreen's, with a free breast self-exam kit and a breast health supplement, to benefit Y-ME with 10% of revenue.[4] Y-ME and Lifetime Television have partnered since 1994 with the joint Stop Breast Cancer for Life Campaign[5], held during October (National Breast Cancer Awareness Month)[6].
