For the third consecutive year, Susan G. Komen Pittsburgh Race for the Cure participants have the opportunity to share their voice, honor a loved one and inspire a strong fight against breast cancer May 9 at Pittsburgh’s Schenley Park.

Komen Pittsburgh and the Neighborhood Ford Store will provide swatches of pink cloth for the more than 30,000 race participants to make their mark against breast cancer before and after the 18th annual Mother’s Day race. The personalized patches, created and collected at the “Patchwork Station” at the Ford display near the finish line, will be sewn together to create colorful “Warrior Quilts” in recognition of all those who stand up to breast cancer. The goal is to collect more than 4,000 patches, twice the number collected last year.

by Michelle Mitcham

Divorce is real. All too often, the negative effects go beyond the husband and wife. Do you know any children “caught in the middle” of a bitter divorce or separation? Maybe you know someone that is going through an intense, hostile, angry divorce that has children and you worry about how the divorce is affecting them.

MICHELLE MITCHAM

When we take a closer look, divorce and separation are becoming a normative event in American society and elsewhere. Nearly half of all marriages end in divorce. The probability of the demise of a first marriage within five years is 20 percent, increasing to nearly 33 percent after 10 years (The National Center for Health Statistics, 2005). Additionally, the length of a first marriage is short lived, averaging approximately eight years (U.S. Census). What about the children? How does this affect them?

The Avon Foundation Breast Care Fund has awarded a $50,000 one-year grant to the YWCA Greater Pittsburgh’s ENCOREplus Program to increase awareness of the life-saving benefits of early detection of breast cancer. It is the 16th year that the program has received funding from the Avon Foundation to support its work on this important health issue and in recognition of the excellence of the program.

PANEL ON MENTAL HEALTH—African-Americans are at high risk for mental illness, but less likely to receive mental health services, diagnosis and treatment, states a 2002 Surgeon General’s report. A panel was formed by Mt. Ararat Baptist Church to discuss and explore the history of mental health issues in the African-American community and provide steps they can take to assist others in their well-being.

PANEL—Above: Jeannie Hyman, Dr. Charma Dudley, Dr. Nelson Harris, Marguerita Matthew and Dr. Daniel Hall.

The event was held at the August Wilson Center. Panelists included Dr. Charma Dudley, clinical director, Family Resources, who talked about Black youths and mental health; Dr. Daniel Hall who spoke about how physical problems are easier to determine then mental issues for doctors; Dr. Nelson Harris compared past and present mental health treatment in Black community; Jeannie Hyman, sister of Phyllis Hyman, spoke about her personal battle with mental health and her family history with mental health; and Marguerita Matthew, who spoke about mental health of Black youths.