FARMINGTON — The Avon Foundation Breast Care Fund has awarded a $45,000 one-year grant to the Healthy Community Coalition to educate women 40 and older about services and financial assistance.

 The breast and cervical cancer awareness program offered by the coalition educates women in Franklin County and refers them to low-cost or free mammograms and clinical breast exams. This year, the program will expand outreach activities to include special strategies to reach very isolated rural women.

Strategies include Mobile Health Unit screening days throughout the county, home visits to educate women about the importance of mammography and the use of a new online social networking tool called My Health Community. These activities will build upon the coalition’s successful breast cancer awareness initiative funded by the Maine Breast & Cervical Cancer Program that covers the cost of mammograms and screenings for income-eligible, uninsured women ages 40-64.

“We are proud that the Avon Foundation shares our mission and has chosen to support our program with a continuation grant to the Healthy Community Coalition,” said program coordinator Jennifer McCormack, a registered nurse. “With these funds we will be able to help women overcome the barriers that are preventing them from receiving annual mammograms and physicals.”

 Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer in women in the United States and the single leading cause of death overall in women between the ages of 40 and 55. According to the American Cancer Society, 980 new cases of breast cancer will be detected in Maine this year and 190 lives will be lost. Nationwide, there is a new diagnosis every three minutes and a death from breast cancer every 14 minutes.

While advances have been made in prevention, diagnosis and treatment, early detection still represents the best opportunity for successful treatment.

Since 1993, the Avon Foundation has awarded more than 1,000 grants to community-based breast health programs across the United States, including the Healthy Community Coalition’s Breast Cancer Awareness Program.