Dear Editor,
February is National Cancer Prevention Month. This is a month used to promote ways to prevent cancer, the importance of finding cancer early, and ways to lower the risk for cancer.
The Cancer Services Program (CSP) of the Hudson Valley delivers cancer prevention services every day. The CSP provides free cervical, colorectal, and breast cancer screening for eligible New Yorkers who do not have health insurance. Unlike many cancers, cervical and colorectal cancer can be prevented with screening tests. Screening tests can find the cells that lead to cancer. These cells can be removed before cancer grows. Although breast cancer can’t be prevented with a screening test, a mammogram can find breast cancer early when it may be easier to treat.
In addition to getting cancer screenings, healthy behaviors like keeping a healthy weight, staying physically active, and choosing not to drink alcohol or to drink less, can lower risk for many cancers.
Cancer screening saves lives, but people who are uninsured, who do not have a regular health care provider, or who have low incomes are less likely to get screened for cancer. The CSP provides free cancer screening in Dutchess, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Sullivan, Ulster, and Westchester counties to people ages 40 and older who do not have health insurance. The CSP will also help you find a health care provider.
If you are age 40 or older, call the CSP of the Hudson Valley at 855-277-4482 to find out if you qualify for free cancer screenings.
Sara Hodgdon
Regional Director
Cancer Services Program of the Hudson Valley
