Grounds for Health - a recipe for fighting cervical cancer
http://www.pcwomensjournal.com/articles/132/1/Grounds-for-Health---a-recipe-for-fighting-cervical-cancer/Page1.html
Beth Phillips-Ferrell
A Cytotechnologist by trade, I am the Practice Administrator for Greenville Pathology, PA. Greenville Pathology, PA is a privately-owned pathology laboratory specializing in surgical pathology, cytopathology, and molecular pathology. I did my undergraduate studies at the UNC-Wilmington; my professional studies and certification in cytology at Bexar County Hospital School of Cytotechnology in San Antonio, TX; and went back to school for my business degree at ECU. By Beth Phillips-Ferrell
Published on 06/10/2010
Beth Phillips-Ferrell of Greenville Pathology discusses her return trip to Mexico to help women there fight cervical cancer.
In March of this year, Beth Phillips-Ferrell, practice administrator and cytotechnologist for Greenville Pathology, PA, returned to Chiapas, Mexico for this year’s Cervical Cancer Prevention Campaign. Beth works with a non-profit organization known as Grounds for Health. This year’s campaign was once again with the Cesmach co-op and the other coffee co-ops that share the same processing plant. Snuggled in a sleepy village in the mountains, 376 women received life saving cervical cancer prevention screening at a clinic in Monte Cristo.
Despite being one of the easiest forms of cancer to screen for and treat, cervical cancer kills more women in coffee-growing countries than any other form of cancer, yet it only takes 23 cents in those same countries to screen and treat cervical cancer. Grounds for Health partners with local health professionals to help them fight this killer themselves so that when they leave there is a sustainable program in place. Using the “single Visit Approach”, our low-resource-appropriate programs focus on innovative training and education, so more women can get back to their children, their communities, and their lives. Volunteers come from all over the United States to train other professionals, and as in the case of Beth, give on the spot diagnosis of their Pap smears.
Three women were diagnosed with cancer as well as 65 other women with precancerous lesions. Without the help of Grounds for Health, these women would not have received the diagnostic services or treatment they needed. “The gratitude with which we are received into their communities is overwhelming. The providers are so excited to learn and thus be able t offer this lie saving technique which we take for granted” says Beth. “I am very blessed to have an employer that sees the value of participating in such campaigns each year”.
For more information about Grounds for Health, to see if you qualify as a volunteer, and/or to make a donation, please see their website at: www.GroundsforHealth.org
Despite being one of the easiest forms of cancer to screen for and treat, cervical cancer kills more women in coffee-growing countries than any other form of cancer, yet it only takes 23 cents in those same countries to screen and treat cervical cancer. Grounds for Health partners with local health professionals to help them fight this killer themselves so that when they leave there is a sustainable program in place. Using the “single Visit Approach”, our low-resource-appropriate programs focus on innovative training and education, so more women can get back to their children, their communities, and their lives. Volunteers come from all over the United States to train other professionals, and as in the case of Beth, give on the spot diagnosis of their Pap smears.
Three women were diagnosed with cancer as well as 65 other women with precancerous lesions. Without the help of Grounds for Health, these women would not have received the diagnostic services or treatment they needed. “The gratitude with which we are received into their communities is overwhelming. The providers are so excited to learn and thus be able t offer this lie saving technique which we take for granted” says Beth. “I am very blessed to have an employer that sees the value of participating in such campaigns each year”.
For more information about Grounds for Health, to see if you qualify as a volunteer, and/or to make a donation, please see their website at: www.GroundsforHealth.org