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By Komen Denver, January 25, 2010 1:40 pm

Late last year the U.S. Preventive Screening Task Force set off a firestorm of controversy when it announced that routine mammograms weren’t necessary for women in their 40s and that women between the ages of 50 and 74 only needed to get screened every other year.

Well, thankfully, the discourse and pressure from women’s groups, organizations like Susan G. Komen for the Cure®, doctors and lawmakers worked. The Senate just approved an amendment to the health-overhaul bill that effectively nullified the Task Force’s guidelines and promised mammogram coverage for women starting at age 40. And, the House voted an impressive 426 – 0 for a resolution saying the guidelines shouldn’t be used by insurers to deny coverage for routine screening.

Here’s a recent Wall Street Journal article that gives a comprehensive update. Check it out.

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By Komen Denver, December 23, 2009 12:30 pm

Pink Yoga was created two years ago in order to create a safe and healing space for women with breast cancer to practice yoga and find community.

My name is Buffy Barfoot and I am a yoga teacher in Denver, My mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother all had breast cancer. When I began the process of creating this class, I could not have imagined the beauty and rich community that would unfold. The women who came quickly knitted into a supportive and diverse kula (community of the heart), and brought a current of vitality and wisdom into every class. They truly love, help and support each other without the heaviness and sedentary effects a support group can sometimes have. They are moving together, creating beauty together, and finding such nourishment as individuals within the fabric of a bigger garment.

My intention in creating Pink Yoga is to weave a space for these amazing women faced with this terrible disease to come together and harness their beauty and power and potential to heal. Pink Yoga addresses the needs of women at any stage of breast cancer, from those currently in treatment to those years into their remission.

The weekly practice includes meditation, breathing techniques that open energy channels in the body and encourage healing, and yoga postures designed to strengthen and free the upper body and open the heart. Every student is honored at the door, regardless of her experience, abilities, or limitations. The themes and contemplations offered for each class are built around issues related to breast cancer.

Pink Yoga provides a safe place to nourish all women, and allows the vibrant and positive healing to begin. Anyone is welcome, including those who do not have cancer but would like to support and be a pearl in this luminous strand of women.

Some key benefits to a regular yoga practice include:

-Increase in energy
-Heightened awareness and clarity
-Deeper sense of joy and connection to a larger current
-Proven decrease in menopausal symptoms sometimes induced by cancer treatments
-Increase in flexibility and muscle strength and decrease in joint pain
-Therapeutic benefits related to post-surgery
-Overall increase in health and well-being
-Increase in personal empowerment and self esteem

The important details:

Vital Yoga (Cherry Creek location)
2727 E 2nd Ave
Denver CO

2-3:30 p.m. every Saturday
For more information or questions contact Buffy Barfoot at 720-212-9191 or buffymiranda@gmail.com

Here’s what a few of the women who have participated in Pink Yoga have to say about their experience:

“It has been a gift to practice yoga with women in various stages of breast cancer treatment and survival. It feels like a very authentic way to share and grow a friendship. Who knew that taking Pink Yoga ‘for my friend with breast cancer’ would turn out to be one of the most enriching experiences of my life.” Nancy

“What Pink Yoga Means to me…
a community of like-minded women
some of us fight breast cancer in our bodies
others of us help in the fight by being…present and being strong.

Pink Yoga means reaching out to another being who is afraid and showing her that things might just turn out OK. Pink Yoga is also being the one who is afraid, and sharing the fear with the others, whose love and strength are palpable. Pink Yoga is being present in my own life and in the life of the community.” Sheila

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By Komen Denver, August 18, 2009 10:18 am

In 2005 the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Denver Affiliate created a program for young women to increase awareness about the  importance of breast health. This program is known as the Young Women’s Program. The program was also created to educate young women of the importance of early detection of breast cancer in women ages 18 – 34. The mission of the Young Women’s Program is to — educate and empower young women to take an active role in their own breast health, by reaching out to them through outlets which play a major role in their life.

There are four main focus areas of the young Women’s Program. They include Komen Konversations, College Outreach, Information Distribution to Spas and Boutiques, and Bookmark Distribution.

The Komen Konversation’s piece provides educational opportunities to marginalized and hard to reach ethnic communities including the African-American, Asian, and Latina communities in various settings within our 12-county service area (e.g. in homes, businesses, places of worship, etc.). Volunteers are trained to teach, contact and locate venues, and host culturally sensitive breast health and breast cancer education sessions in the community.

The focus for the outreach to colleges encompasses collaborating with college health centers, health fairs, and student organizations to get breast health information into colleges and to educate students on breast health. This program is very similar to Komen Konversations but will focus on the college campuses in our community.

The Distribution to Boutiques & Spas program focuses on distributing breast health information and other breast materials to select businesses in our service area; preferably to small, independently owned boutiques and spas which target younger women.  The information is displayed on counters, windows, and/or fitting rooms to educate customers on breast health.

The idea behind the Bookmark Distribution is very simple. The Denver Affiliate can order free bookmarks through Komen National. The bookmarks are distributed to local libraries, including those on college campuses and in underserved communities, on an ongoing basis throughout the year (quarterly). Also bookmarks could be distributed to small, locally owned bookstores in our service area.

To learn more about the Young Women’s Program or to become a volunteer, please contact Amarilis Viera-Simoes,
Director of Education & Marketing, at 303.744.2088 ext. 302 or AViera@komendenver.org.