Nineteen years ago, Pat Shults started getting her annual mammograms.

"Breast cancer is not in my family, but I knew it was just common sense to have them," said Shults, a teaching assistant at Delaware Academy in the Syracuse schools.

Seven years ago, the yearly exam found the first signs of cancer. "It had just started and the cancer had not invaded anything else," Shults said. "Without a mammogram, it would have gone undetected. I know a mammogram and early intervention saved my life."

That's what the New England Journal of Medicine reported in 2005. Mammography has helped reduce mortality from breast cancer significantly.

The disease takes years to develop. In the early stages, most breast cancers cause no symptoms.

Unfortunately, the number of women receiving mammograms has decreased. The American Cancer Society has reported that one of every three women over the age of 40 in New York state does not have yearly mammograms.

When NYSUT Vice President Maria Neira learned that statistic she recommitted to doubling the union's efforts.

"We will do what we do best. We will educate our own members, 65 percent of whom are women, and assist in an educational campaign with the goal of making sure that every mother of a school-age child knows the importance of mammography," Neira announced at an ACS kickoff for the upcoming Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walks.

NYSUT is working with ACS to get the word out on the importance of mammography in a pilot program this fall targeted in the Albany, Binghamton, Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and Yonkers school districts.

Locals in those cities are working to distribute NYSUT-made fliers that urge women over 40 to get an exam and explain how to get one free if they are uninsured and can't afford them. 

Besides the pilot program, Neira announced the union's goal of having 10,000 participant walkers and raising $1 million statewide for the breast cancer walks.

Shults will be at the Sept. 30 walk in the Salt City alongside members of the Syracuse TA, which last year fielded a team of more than 200 people.

"Everyone was just wonderful to me when I was going through my treatments," Shults said, noting that she had a lumpectomy, followed by 35 rounds of radiation and five years of hormone therapy.

Her prognosis is excellent. Her good health means she continues as a teaching assistant and reading tutor in the elementary schools.

She also continues to have annual mammograms.

"This November, I will have the digital mammogram because I feel that strongly about how effective they are," Shults said.

— Betsy Sandberg