Hinsdale Imaging Center provides free mammograms with '40 for 40' program

HINSDALE — Call it the gift that keeps you living.

The imaging staff at Adventist Midwest Health's Hinsdale Imaging Center took notice of the fact that many women coming in for mammograms had no insurance and as a result, no way to cover the costs. Enter the "40 for 40" Program.

In commemoration of Breast Cancer Awareness month in October, the center provided free mammograms for 40 women over the age of 40 who were without the benefit of insurance. The foundation, a part of the Open Arms Breast Cancer Outreach Fund, was created by the Hinsdale Imaging Center and the Hinsdale Hospital Foundation in 2011.

Sandy Mueller, associate director of oncology outreach and manager at the Hinsdale Imaging Center, said the response to the program has been “overwhelmingly positive,” and that many of the women who received the free mammograms are reduced to tears in gratitude.

Donna Cerveny of Brookfield is one of those 40 women who thought all was well until she had her recent mammogram. It had been 10 years since her last. It wasn’t that she wasn’t feeling all right, it was simply time for a check up.

“I’ve been uninsured for 10 years after I lost my good job,” she said. “I was turning 60 in November. I was thinking I had been lucky but I was pushing my luck.”

Then a family member told her about the “40 for 40” program, and

Cerveny scheduled a free mammogram.

She tested positive for breast cancer.

“It was a little scary but I’m a very optimistic person so I wasn’t devastated,” Cerveny said. “I thought if it’s got to be, I’d rather have cancer in the breast than any other place in my body.”

Cerveny said she underwent a lumpectomy Nov. 19, and is now waiting for the results of an extensive lab test done on the tumor.

Were it not for the free mammogram, Cerveny said the test would have been out of reach. Underemployed for a decade, she has been supporting herself with only smaller jobs — part-time, seasonal work.

“Even if you get a job that lasts for a year, they don’t give you 40 hours a week so you’re still part-time,” Cerveny said. “Money has been tight. I probably wouldn’t have gone forward (in getting a mammogram). I don’t know what I would have done. This has been a Godsend.”

Cerveny had high praise for the staff who helped her begin her uncertain journey.

“The nice part about it is that these people had been so wonderful,” she said. “They basically led me down the path and that was a great feeling in itself. It all moved so quickly. I always knew what I had to do, step by step. I can’t imagine doing this alone. I put myself in their hands and they led the way.”

And there has been no shortage of generosity when it comes to funding the “40 for 40” program.

A patient who works at a yarn store offered to make scarves that could be sold. Another patient who is a breast cancer survivor held a wine-tasting fundraiser. A hospital volunteer made 35 prayer shawls and more than 400 port pillows for patients, and a surgical nurse from another hospital made and donated a blanket.

The Hinsdale Imaging Center front desk staff also got involved firsthand. They learned to crochet so they could make scarves to sell, while teenagers from the area chipped in by baking for bake sales. One woman left a $100 donation in lieu of bringing sweets home from the bake sale.

But the generosity that flows from the program doesn’t end there.

Once diagnosed with breast cancer, the question then becomes one of
paying for the treatment.

“That was something we thought about ahead of time,” Mueller said. “We were conscious of the fact that a number of these women would have abnormal mammograms. We knew that was a possibility, that we would find breast cancer.”

So staff does what it can to find funding for treatment through the state’s Medicaid or other programs.

“If we can’t then we’ll figure it out with our donors and our community. We’re not going to let them drop,” Mueller said.

As for those staff members involved in the program, there are rewards as well, Mueller said.

“It makes us all remember why we are here and it gives us a sense of purpose,” she said. “It’s really a cool thing.”

Get help
For information about the breast cancer outreach program, call Sandy Mueller at 630-856-4801.