Breast Cancer Resource Center

The Breast Cancer Resource Center of the YWCA Princeton (BCRC) is a program that for 28 years has emphasized the importance of early detection for breast cancer. It presents educational programs to schools, civic associations, corporations, churches, hospitals, women’s groups, senior centers and businesses. The program teaches the importance of BSE (breast self-exam), mammograms, pap smears and clinical breast exams. It offers support and information for people diagnosed with breast cancer and for all interested in breast health. The heart of the program is being available from the moment of a diagnosis and then throughout the lives of these men and women. Realizing that breast cancer impacts the whole family, the BCRC offers a support program for men that is directed at men who have women in their lives with cancer.

The Breast Cancer Resource Center is a resource to all of New Jersey. Through lectures, state seminars, media sources, and personal contact, the BCRC aims to educate all people, especially the medically underserved, that early detection of all cancers offer the most options for treatment and the best chance of recovery. The BCRC is also the place where women can receive free breast prostheses and free wigs.

The BCRC is an educational resource for information about breast and gynecological cancers. It has a free lending library filled with hundreds of health-related books; including pamphlets, articles, audio and video tapes, and abstracts of research data.

The heart of the program is being a psychological resource for people at any stage of their disease – from making a decision about surgery and reconstruction, recuperating from its after-effects, undergoing radiation, chemotherapy and/or hormonal treatment, joining a clinical trial, facing a stem cell transplant, living with uncertainty, facing recurrence and end of life issues.

The goal of the program is to give newly diagnosed people a safe place to share their fears and concerns through a 24 hour hot-line, a buddy system, several support groups and one-on-one counseling. Beginning with their diagnosis, the BCRC provides information to help make decisions to put their cancer experience in perspective and to go on living as healthy, positive people. The BCRC presents programs featuring topics such as the latest medical information, nutrition, meditation, lymph edema research, stress management, insurance concerns and preventive techniques. All on-site programs are always offered free of charge.

For additional information, please contact: Jeanine Miller at the Breast Cancer Resource Center, YWCA Princeton, 914 Commons Way, Princeton, NJ 08540, Tel: 609 252-2003 Fax: (609) 497-2127BCRC, or visit their website at: http://www.bcrnj.org .