January is Cervical Cancer Awareness Month – and Grand Forks Public Health’s Women’s Way program is bringing attention to it with powerful quilt displays.
Tiffany Boespflug is Women’s Way Coordinator at Grand Forks Public Health. She says cervical cancer is a highly preventable cancer with both routine screenings and even vaccines. She says regular pap tests and HPV screenings can detect abnormal cells before they become cancerous, and HPV vaccines may prevent infection that could lead to cancer. And Boespflug says Women’s Way offers a way to get those screenings for women who need them. She says 1 in 17 North Dakota women may be eligible for free breast and cervical cancer screenings through Women’s Way.
"If you're uninsured or under-insured, Women's Way can pay for your screenings, your office visit, your pap test, your HPV test - and then, a lot of times if you need further testing, like a colposcopy is usually where we go after you have an abnormal pap test - that can be covered too. And then also for those people who have another form of insurance, it doesn't necessarily mean that you can't enroll. So just give us a call and we'll figure it out."
Boespflug says locally, three quilts are on display to raise awareness of the impacts of HPV and cervical cancer.
"The quilts are made by, or in memory of women who have battled cervical cancer and pre-cancerous HPV lesions, so it kind of connects women in our community to people who have been affected by it and gives them a voice."
Boespflug says the quilts are displayed at Grand Forks Public Health, Spectra Health and the Grand Forks Public Library.