Winneshiek County Supervisors proclaim October as Breast Cancer Awareness Month

PHOTO: Winneshiek County Celebration of Life representative Margaret Walter with county supervisors John Logsdon, Mark Kuhn and Floyd Ashbacher

County supervisors have signed a proclamation declaring October to be Breast Cancer Awareness Month locally.  It's an annual campaign to increase awareness of the disease.

Locally, Winneshiek County Celebration of Life raises funds to help pay for expenses incurred by county residents when they are getting treatments for cancer.  WCCOL spokesperson Margaret Walter says her organization will spend around $20,000 this year to help all kinds of Winneshiek county cancer patients.

Nationally, an estimated 276,480 new cases of invasive breast cancer will be diagnosed in women, as well as 48,530 new cases of non-invasive breast cancer.  64 percent of breast cancer cases are diagnosed at a localized stage, for which the 5-year survival is 99 percent.