New breast self-exam workshops offered in Port Coquitlam

By Lynn Easton - Staff Reproter

A local non-profit agency that has been concentrating its efforts on educating women in Eastern Europe about breast self exams has returned home, to help women who aren't getting the education they need in the Tri-Cities.

"It's an area that doesn't get focused on here," said Angie Slubowska, spokesperson for the Port Coquitlam-based Amberheart Breast Cancer Foundation.

Slubowska's father started Amberheart in 1998, 10 years after immigrating to Canada from Poland where he was a doctor. Unable to get work here under rigid foreign doctor criteria that are only now being changed, Tad Slubowska took to doing cancer research and following other business opportunities.

As the communist infrastructure fell in his native Poland, he realized there was no assistance for women fighting early-stage breast cancer, and decided to help.

In 1998, he founded Amberheart and began working with a small group in Warsaw. With its Polish connections, the PoCo-based group managed to create a non-profit organization called Prodiatera to help women screen themselves for breast cancer.

It's now operating in Warsaw with help from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).

"We've been able to get a lot of grants for the group and will continue to work closely with them," Angie said.

Women in Eastern Europe still don't have the same tools as North American women when it comes to detecting breast cancer.

Mammography machines stand idle because there is often no staff on duty, and information doesn't get out to most women, according to Angie, who recently returned from two years in Poland where she worked with her father's organization and studied for her master of arts degree in international relations.

"It's still a taboo subject," she said. "There is far less awareness."

While their work has begun to flourish in Poland, Amberheart organizers noticed that breast self-examination education was lacking in their own backyard.

"We thought it was time to give something back to our own community," Angie said.

The organization plans to hold four-hour workshops beginning Saturday, June 18.

"Women in their 20s should be learning these techniques," Angie said.

The organization has three full-time staff members and will be offering workshops aimed at woman under 40.

The workshops will include a bit of anatomy, a training video to learn the technique and some "hands-on" work with life-like silicon breasts that have various sized lumps inside.

The cost is $55 per person, and participants will take home a CD and a package of information containing, among other things, a wooden necklace with beads representing various sized tumors.

"It's a great visual aid - and it's fun," Angie said.

Classes will take place Saturdays at 10 a.m., Tuesdays at 9 a.m. and Thursdays at 6 p.m.

For more information call 604-942-3569 or visit www.amberheart.net. The Amberheart office is located at 202-2571 Shaughnessy St.

posted on 06/06/2005