Brownsville residents are calling on city officials and health organizations to establish breast cancer resources in an area that has little screening and treatment options.
During a breast cancer awareness walk in October, residents, breast cancer survivors, and family members who lost loved ones from the disease said outer borough residents should not have to travel far to find a doctor, a clinic or treatment center as they have to do now.
Scholanda Miller, a community school director from the nonprofit Partnership with Children, one of the organizers of the walk, said there are no radiology clinics in Brownsville. Residents have to travel to neighboring communities to get annual mammograms, ultrasounds or sonograms.
"Most of the local doctors' offices have no x-ray machines," Miller said. "We have to travel to local emergency room at Brookdale [Hospital] or a CityMD. These standard and follow-up testing and imaging services are easily accessible in other areas of New York City, but not here, not on our streets of Brownsville."
Brownsville's population is almost 88% Black and Latino, with about 32.4% living below the poverty line, according to the NYU Furman Center. The American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network reported in 2022 that Brownsville, and nearby Ocean Hill, have the lowest rate of women diagnosed with the early stages of breast cancer in the city. NYU Langone reported that breast cancer rates in Brooklyn rose by 8% between 2011 and 2015, and 2016 and 2020.
Miller said fighting for breast cancer resources is "very sentimental and personal."
"I lost my grandmother and my mom's oldest sister to breast cancer," she said.
Earlier this year, Miller herself found two masses in her right breast during a gynecological visit. She had to go to Mill Basin for testing and wait almost a month for a diagnostic ultrasound. Lenox Hill Radiology in Flatbush and Brookdale Hospital are good resources, Miller said, but appointments are difficult to get. And if someone's primary care doctor is not connected with those sites, they would have to go elsewhere, she said.
Miller, whose two masses turned out to be benign, was among the nearly 1,000 people who marched for breast cancer awareness, including individuals from P.S. 41, P.S. 284, P.S. 298, P.S. 184, Riverdale Avenue Middle School, Ascend Charter School, Mott Hall Middle School, and various business leaders and civic groups.
Kundora Smith is a veteran teacher at P.S. 284. She has Stage 2 breast cancer, a diagnosis she found after her sister passed away last year from the same disease. She has been sharing her journey with her fifth-grade students, many who were at the walk with their parents.
Smith said she talks to her students about her battle to make them understand that cancer can happen to anyone. Her students have encouraged her to say strong, making her a sign that said "You're going to make it through."
"They need to be aware that it happens to people who look like me and them," said Smith, who has been a teacher for 25 years. "People here, they don't believe it happens to them."
Shanice Trotman, a PWC program director, said she was excited so many schools participated in the walk this year.
"They're so excited," she said. "They're building community and learning that they're voices matter. No one is too young to raise awareness."
