Residents, medical professionals, native leaders and even celebrated athletes gathered for the second annual Prince George’s County Well being and Wellness Expo on Oct. 4, working to fight well being disparities by providing free screenings, health demonstrations, groceries, assets and extra.
With instruments to assist the thoughts, physique and soul, the occasion, held on the Prince George’s Sports activities and Studying Advanced on Saturday, aimed to encourage residents to take proactive steps towards long-term wellness.
“We’re right here at present to ensure that we carry healthcare to the group,” Del. Tiffany Alston informed The Informer. “For much too lengthy, our group has lacked assets. We don’t have sufficient major care suppliers. We don’t have sufficient specialty suppliers. So at present you may come out and totally free, get entry to high quality well being care.”
Whereas scrolling by social media, Pastor Tammy Burton discovered concerning the occasion and made it a precedence to be in attendance.
“I needed to see what was accessible right here and what was being supplied,” Burton, a Prince George’s County resident, informed The Informer. “Well being and wellness as a girl is so vital due to the position that we play in society and the position that we play with our households.”
Highlighting Ladies’s Well being
Burton was not the one particular person current emphasizing the significance of girls’s well being through the second annual expo.
4-time WNBA champion and Basketball Corridor of Fame inductee Sheryl Swoopes partnered with Radnet, a nationwide community of outpatient medical imaging facilities, after having an up shut take a look at the well being challenges Black girls face.
“Personally, my household’s been affected by many several types of most cancers,” Swoopes mentioned. “Well being is wealth, be sure to’re specializing in you with the intention to have the ability to care for your loved ones.”
Radnet is devoted to creating superior imaging extra accessible and inexpensive exterior of hospital settings — particularly for preventive screenings like mammograms and early most cancers detection. As an athlete who has watched members of the family battle well being crises, Swoopes has turn out to be a serious advocate for screenings and prioritizing wellness general.
“After I was taking part in, I understood the significance of caring for my well being, however I had different individuals round that might ensure that I used to be doing that,” she informed The Informer. “Now, as a former participant, I [understand] the significance of creating certain you’re getting your screenings, [and your] mammograms.”
Black girls are at larger danger for breast most cancers, and have the best breast most cancers mortality charge of another U.S. racial or ethnic group – at 40%.
Equally to Swoopes, Alston was impressed to advertise well being and wellness in Prince George’s after watching the ladies in her life expertise well being hardships.
“I don’t wish to see one other particular person die like my aunts did due to a really preventable illness,” she informed the Informer. “[One] died from breast most cancers as a result of she didn’t get it detected quickly sufficient. [The other] from kidney most cancers, as a result of she wasn’t going to the physician as soon as she discovered.”
‘Screenings Save Lives’: The Significance of Being Proactive
For Swoopes and the individuals at Radnet, serving to individuals to seek out the braveness to get screened is without doubt one of the first large steps in taking cost of 1’s well being.
“Many occasions it’s the concern of the unknown that makes us [not want to] discover out,” mentioned Swoopes.
Nevertheless, Swoopes and Radnet have been on the Prince George’s Well being and Wellness Expo, ecstatic to offer companies for residents within the area.
“We couldn’t be happier to be out right here supporting the group,” Steve Forthuber, president of Radnet, informed The Informer. “We are able to’t essentially remedy most cancers, however what we will do is diagnose it at its earliest phases the place it’s most curable so that folks can lead higher lives [while reducing] the general value of care.”
Radnet staffer Cliffondra Brown additionally careworn the significance of screenings, through the Saturday expo.
“Screenings save lives,” Brown informed The Informer. “Whenever you go early and get your screening, the outcomes are so a lot better, so I believe it’s price it for anybody to come back out.”
