October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and Advanced Diagnostic Imaging Center will be offering free mammograms to local women who cannot afford it.

This is the third year ADIC has offered the screenings. Over the last two years, several hundred women have been given free mammograms, and another several hundred have been assisted in receiving benefits through the Best Chance Program.

South Carolina ranks 25th in the nation for deaths from breast cancer, and while white women are nearly 11 percent more likely to develop breast cancer, black women are nearly 35 percent more likely to die of the disease, the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control reports.

According to the American Cancer Society, women at average risk for developing breast cancer should begin annual mammography at 40 years old, and women in their 20s and 30s should have a clinical breast exam every three years.

Women who are asymptomatic, 40 years or older, with no insurance coverage for mammograms and who have not had a mammogram in the last 12 months qualify for the free exams through ADIC. Any women who meet those qualifications should call the center at 803-536-1106 and ask for Heather.

Patients who are ages 40 to 64 and meet Best Chance Network guidelines will be offered the opportunity to be referred to a BCN provider for those services, if they wish to be referred. For more information about BCN, call ACS at 1-800-227-2345 or visit scdhec.net/health/chcdp/cancer/bcn.htm.

Advanced Diagnostic Imaging Center is situated at 1728 Villagepark Drive in The Village in Orangeburg.

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