Friends Together Offers Resources During Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Around 240,000 women and 2,100 men are diagnosed each year with breast cancer. Over 61,000 new cases have been estimated in the state of Michigan this year.

As October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Friends Together in Alpena is offering resources for anyone who has breast cancer, or anyone who knows someone who has it.

“Friends Together offers programs of support and all kinds of services to people with breast cancer all year round, so we are able to offer a lot of these programs and services in partnership with our friends at Zonta,” said Melissa Burns, executive director at Friends Together.

Friends Together offers programs like yoga and beauty sessions for those with breast cancer, and they also offer garments and wigs for women who go through surgery and chemotherapy.

Many of the women who visit Friends Together have breast cancer, so they try to offer programs and services for those dealing specifically with breast cancer.

“Treatment isn’t easy on a lot of these women, so we want to make sure that they’re as comfortable as possible,” said Burns. “If they have a specific need, they can always come to the Friends Together center and we can help them with that.”

Friends Together may not be medical professionals, but they do encourage women in northeast Michigan to have themselves evaluated for breast cancer.

“As we all know, that is the key to early detection so that it can be stopped and hopefully treated, and we see many women come through our doors that successfully go through treatment and are able to pick up their lives again,” said Burns.

The Zonta Walk and 5k Run to support breast cancer awareness takes place this Saturday as well.