Dear Ladies,
Cancer can strike at every Polish family. Approximately 10,000 women get breast cancer every year in Poland. A half of them die. This dreadful statistics does not have to be that high.
Do you know how to examine your breast by yourselves? How long ago have you taken a mammography check? When you see any changes in your breast, immediately visit your physician. Take care to invest in your health. This may be the best investment of your life.
Think of yourself. Early detection makes cancer curable. Remember that your health is essential for you and your family.
You must live!
Jolanta Kwaśniewska
 

It is no shame to get breast cancer but it is a shame to give yourself no chance of living.
Our foundation "Communication without barriers" under the leadership of Jolanta Kwaśniewska has decided to participate in projects, which act to educate women in how to take care of the health of their own.
In March 2000, the program "You may be ahead of cancer" commenced. The program is run under the Foundation's patronage and in cooperation with companies engaged in the struggle against cancer. The main aim is to convince women that a regular self-check of breasts is absolutely necessary starting even as early as in the age of 20.
Breast cancer, the most frequent malignant neoplasm affecting women, is responsible for 17% of all cases of malignant tumors. The risk of getting breast cancer increases with age. However, considering the recent progress in the cancer therapy, early detection of the disease makes the fight almost always successful. If women get this habit of monthly self-check of their breasts to be their second nature and they take advantage of the readily accessible diagnostic means, such as screening mammography, USG, MMG, or a simple biopsy, their chance of being ahead of cancer will be very high.
In order to get through with our appeal a complex promotional campaign was carried out in the media from October 1999 to March 2000. A brief TV spots, billboards in many Polish towns displaying slogans encouraging women to regular self-check of their breasts, posters displayed in the outpatient departments, physician's consulting rooms, hairdresser shops, and beauty salons brought the message. More detailed information on the breast cancer and on the methods of cancer prevention and therapy were spread by running a leaflet campaign and by placing advertisements in the women's magazines.
According to the results of the poll conducted in July 1999 by Mareco Polska, a member of the Gallup International Association, 65% of the responding women admitted having noticed during the last year some information concerning the mammographic control of breasts. As the source of this information they indicated consulting rooms (46%), television (31%), and women's magazines (38%). Although the figures as such may be taken with a feeling of optimism, it should be borne in mind that only every third woman in the positively responding group (i.e., the group making 65% of all women covered by the poll) was convinced of the necessity of a systematic mammography control.
Our action "You may be ahead of cancer" was intended to change this attitude and to convince women that a regular self-check of breasts is crucial for detecting the disease as early as possible. The Foundation subsidized this action by allocating PLN 50,000 for mammography control of peasant women, in particular those from poor regions suffering from high unemployment.