Inland Imaging LLC started the Every Woman Can awareness campaign here two years ago in an attempt to increase the number of women who receive annual mammogram screenings.

Now, the effort is raising more than awareness. Every Woman Can backers organized the group as its own 501(c)3 nonprofit organization earlier this year, and the new nonprofit is raising money to fund mammography tests for low-income women and underserved populations, says Inland Imaging spokeswoman Pam Pyrc.

Trish McFarland, executive director of the YWCA of Spokane and a board member for the young foundation, says, "The thing that's important about Every Woman Can is it heightens awareness. More people say, 'I really need this, and I can do this.'"

Earlier this year, Every Woman Can handed out its first two grants. The awards of $3,500 each went to the Native Project, which provides health services to people in the West Central neighborhood, targeting American Indians; and the Breast Cervical and Colon Health Program, which provides breast, cervical, and colorectal cancer screening to low-income people and those without medical insurance.

Kayla Dahmen, a marketing assistant at Inland Imaging who is involved in the foundation, says many of the women served by the Breast Cervical and Colon Health Program are minorities, and the organization is targeting that population. Some studies suggest minority women are more likely to develop breast cancer, and in general, they are less likely to come in for annual examinations.

McFarland concurs, adding that she sees firsthand at the YWCA some of the challenges minority women face.

"I see how difficult it is for low-income women and women who don't speak our language," McFarland says. "They have such barriers to health care access. We're trying to break down the barriers."

The cost of a mammogram can vary somewhat, but generally speaking, Pyrc says, the screenings cost about $300. Inland Imaging has said, however, it will donate to the grant recipients half the cost of each examination, so that money can go toward giving exams to a greater number of women.

Physicians typically recommend that women begin having annual mammograms when they turn 40. Women in their 20s and 30s are encouraged to perform self-examinations as well.

The impetus for the Every Woman Can campaign came from a survey Inland Imaging conducted in 2008 in which half of the women over the age of 40 indicated they don't receive annual mammograms. Primary reasons disclosed for not getting the exams revolved around time and money. In some cases, women said they didn't have insurance. In other cases, women said they had insurance but didn't know insurance covered the exam.

Inland Imaging launched the Every Woman Can mammogram awareness campaign during the Woman Show in the spring of 2009 so that women would be aware of the accessibility to screenings—and to dispel some myths about the time involved and out-of-pocket costs.

Pyrc says the campaign was well-received, and its organizers received unexpected and unsolicited offers from donors who wanted to contribute money to the cause.

After identifying the need for such a group, Every Woman Can organizers formalized the effort as a 501(c)3 organization. Inland Imaging still is paying for the Every Woman Can marketing campaign, and the nonprofit is raising money to fund mammograms.

In addition to McFarland, the foundation board currently consists of Jan Holloway, of the Washington State University College of Nursing; Connie Mickelson, of Inland Imaging; and Margretta Scammell-Renner, of the American Cancer Society. The nonprofit currently is looking for one more board member.

Pyrc says the organization doesn't have a quantitative sense of how effective the campaign has been in its first few years.

Anecdotally, she says, Inland Imaging detected 383 cases of breast cancer in 2010, which was slightly more than it detected a year earlier, but she says the company can't link that to more screenings or an increase in awareness regarding mammographies.

Inland Imaging and Every Woman Can are considering conducting another study next year to determine whether a greater number of women who are over 40 years old report getting mammograms annually.

"For so many women, the reason they don't go is the fear, but fear doesn't do you any good," McFarland says. "The earlier the detection, the better."