Published: Tuesday, October 16, 2012 12:01 AM CDT

For many area women, Monday’s annual Women’s Health Forum in Yankton was a chance to reflect and grow from listening to other people share their stories and getting valuable health tips as well.

The forum was aimed at cancer issues and helped raise money for the All Women Count program, which helps women in South Dakota cover the cost of breast and cervical cancer screenings. Women who meet the age (30-64) and income guidelines (200 percent federal poverty guidelines) are eligible under the All Women Count program.

Since the program started screenings in 1997, it has paid for more than 80,000 Pap tests, clinical breast exams and mammograms and diagnosing more than 200 women with breast cancer and 27 with cervical cancer.

This year the featured speakers were Amy Miner, a YHS teacher and breast cancer survivor and Dr. Jill Sternquist, who works at Yankton Medical Clinic as an OBGYN.

“Many of you in the room today have been my go-to girls for things,” Miner said. “I just passed my eight-year mark of breast cancer survivorship, which is pretty   exciting.”

Miner, who now works as a teacher at Yankton High School (YHS) was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2004. She was teaching at YHS around that time, but was set to move to Hawaii for a teaching fellowship.

“During the course of some last-minute exams before I moved to Hawaii, this anomaly came up,” she said.

She added that when people go through challenges like breast cancer or another disease or hardship, things seem to become so sudden, overwhelming and may seem insurmountable at times.

Miner said once she was diagnosed with breast cancer, she made the process proceed as quickly as possible. She was diagnosed in September 2004, then had an ultrasound performed in Hawaii on Sept. 13 and she was home in Yankton a few days later. She had her mastectomy performed Sept. 27.

“After that, I really just sat around and ate a lot,” she said, laughing.

Miner returned to her classes in Hawaii by the middle of October.

“It was an adventure, to say the least,” she said. “I always had someone there for me right from the beginning of the process.”

She said that her diagnosis with breast cancer changed her life in many ways.

“Whatever the challenges are that you might be facing, they allow you to look at life through a different lens,” Miner said. “Instead of thinking about decisions I would make in terms of life or death, I began to think of things based on life and life. It really taught me to keep all things in perspective.”

Before Miner took the stage, Sternquist offered the audience facts and tips about cancer, risk factors and how women can protect themselves against various forms of cancer.

“Screenings really help to find the disease before symptoms arise,” she said. “It’s important to keep going for regular follow ups.”

She added that 1 in 3 women will be diagnosed with some sort of cancer in their lifetime and 1 in 5 women will die from that cancer.

Dr. Mary Milroy, who served as the emcee for the event and is also on the committee that plans the forum, talked about how important events like this are for the community.

“One of the nice things about the forum is that it helps raise awareness about cancer,” she said. “It’s about pulling together and being aware about the types of cancers out there.”

She said such events help cancer patients and survivors through the emotional trials of dealing with cancer. She added that the event is powerful and important for the healing process.

“The event shows survivors and people diagnosed with breast cancer that they have support from the community,” Milroy said. “We’re also raising funds for a great cause.”

Last year the forum raised about $1,500 and organizers are hoping that number is even higher this year.

Organizers also sell raffle tickets which provide a large amount of the donation money.

“This event is really about a community coming together to make a difference,” Milroy added. “People are coming together to raise awareness and show the importance of the issue. The forum provides tremendous support and helps women with breast cancer see that they are not alone.”

Cancer numbers are statistics and numbers but those statistics are people.”

You can follow Andrew Atwal on Twitter at twitter.com/andrewatwal