CLEVELAND — The disparities facing Black women when it comes to health are eye-opening. According to the American Cancer Society (ACS), “Black women are 8% less likely to be diagnosed with cancer than white women, but 12% more likely to die if diagnosed.”
A new ACS initiative, VOICES of Black Women, is focused on better understanding cancer and other health conditions within this group. It’s not a clinical study. Participants will be surveyed online about their lived experiences.
“It’s really a movement, it’s a longitudinal study over time, really being in touch with women twice a year to understand what’s going on in their world, their environmental factors, how they’re living and then who will get cancer or not, so that researchers can then try to understand what led to that so we can get some solutions, education and inform our community,” said Voices of Black Women Ambassador Dr. Natoya Walker Minor, who has a doctorate in Executive Leadership.
“So many times African American women are silenced for a number of reasons, and we work in the background, but Voices is a way, when I think about that word, to elevate something, to champion something to tell the world about something.”
Walker Minor currently works in public transportation in Greater Cleveland. “My whole entire career has really intersected with public health in one way or another,” she said.
She’s had a history of cancer in her family, but years ago, a friend’s death had a big impact.
“I was shocked, she’s 34, she had breast cancer, you’ll survive, and she didn’t,” Walker Minor said.
This is a 30-year study to explore the disparities as well as environmental factors these women face.
“We’re looking for women between the ages of 25 to 55 to enroll in this study, to participate in an initial survey but then two surveys a year,” said Associate Director of Development for ACS (Cleveland) Baylee Ferguson.
“Across the county we’re looking for 100,000 women, in Cleveland we’re looking for just under 1,000 women to get involved.”
According to the local chapter, as of Dec. 2 — 2,728 women across the country have signed on. Eighty-eight of those are from Ohio.
Ferguson said information will be released throughout the course of the study.
“The American Cancer Society, our mission is to end cancer, as we know it, for everyone and this is the way for us to have a really direct focus on everyone.”
For more information on how to get involved in the study, click here.
