3/27/08
Clarendon County to benefit from cancer control grant
By Cathy Gilbert

CATHY GILBERT/Manning Times

Mammogram technicians, Kristi McElveen (left) and Janice McNair assist a patient with her mammogram. Clarendon Health System, through a CPRHN administered DHEC grant, will provide 100 mammograms to uninsured and underserved women in the county.

The Coastal Plain Rural Heath Network will partner with South Carolina Dept. of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) Public Health Region 4 to provide cancer risk awareness, prevention education and screening services for breast and prostate cancer to minority, underserved and uninsured rural populations in Clarendon, Florence and Marion counties.

The announcement was made recently by Derrick Mims, Region 4 Health Director for DHEC, the state agency funding the $28,000 project through their Bureau of Community Health and Chronic Disease Prevention division.

“This funding will allow us to build on our new partnership with the Coastal Plain Rural Health Network so that we can provide cancer education and screenings to populations that we were not able to access them in the past,” said Mims.

In addition to health education activities that may take place in locations such as rural churches, the grant will fund 100 breast screening mammograms, 10 breast diagnostic mammograms and 100 prostate exams, known as PSAs.

The Coastal Plain Rural Health Network is a group of four hospitals, DHEC Region 4 and 6, an educational institution and a community health center. Clarendon Memorial Hospital is a participating hospital in the network.

“The Network is pleased to work with DHEC in our continuing efforts to make healthcare more readily available for citizens who often find it difficult to get basic health services,” said Edward R. Frye, chief executive officer of Clarendon Health System. “We have an opportunity – and a responsibility – to do what we can for those who need our help the most.”

The Coastal Plain Rural Health Network in conjunction with Clarendon Health System has already offered free prostate cancer screenings for men who do not have health insurance to cover this vital test.

“We had four prostate screening dates in both February and March and are hoping to hold several screenings in April,” said Scherrie Cogdill, director of the Coastal Plain Rural Health Network and Executive Director of the Cypress Foundation, the charitable arm of the Clarendon Health System.

Please contact Scherrie Cogdill, Director at 803-435-5246 for more information concerning these screenings.