GREENFIELD — Sometimes through laughter, sometimes through tears, Janae Swan shared her emotional breast cancer journey with the 350 guests gathered at the annual Women Helping Women dinner Friday, Oct. 28 at Adaggios Banquet Hall in Greenfield.
Swan and her husband, WTHR news anchor Scott Swan, were featured speakers at the event designed to raise funds for women’s healthcare services for those in need.
More than $125,000 was raised at this year’s dinner through tickets sales and live and silent auctions, coming in a close second to the all-time highest amount raised in the event’s 24-year history, when $127,000 was raised in 2018.
“It went as well as we could have possibly hoped for,” said Allyson Smith, manager for the Hancock Health Foundation, which raises funds for the Women Helping Women program.
The charitable program supports women obtaining services through the women’s clinic at the James T. Anderson Center for Women’s Health at Hancock Regional Hospital.
The clinic provides women’s health services for free or at a reduced cost for women who are uninsured or underinsured, based on income.
Women Helping Women first started out by helping to fund mammograms for those in need, but the program has since grown to help cover a wide range of women’s health services, from ultrasounds and diagnostic screenings to breast MRIs.
In 2021, donations to Women Helping Women paid for 58 screening mammograms, 22 diagnostic mammograms, 35 pelvic exams, 14 ultrasounds, 36 clinical breast exams, seven pelvic ultrasounds and 14 bone density scans.
“We’ve been able to expand our services thanks to the funds raised through the generosity of the community,” said Smith.
Hancock Health Foundation president Nancy Davis said she continues to be blown away by the level of generosity, year after year.
“I feel like it’s a bit of scary time for people financially with the cost of everything going up, so I was a little hesitant to see how it was going to turn out, but it turned out just amazing,” she said of the annual fundraiser.
Davis was thrilled to once again host the event in person after it was canceled in 2020 and held virtually in 2021 due to COVID.
“Being back together in person creates a lot more excitement and a spirit of camaraderie, plus there’s it adds a spirit of friendly competition when it comes to bidding on auction items,” she said.
One of the most popular items up for bid was a hand-crafted quilt made by Cherie Burrow of Greenfield, using scraps she had left over from making more than 1,300 masks during the COVID pandemic over the past two years.
Burrow, who gave birth to all three of her daughters at Hancock Regional Hospital, said it was an honor to support the hometown hospital which has served her family so well for four generations.
She named her quilt “Tree of Life” to symbolize the fact that the hospital cares for families through all stages of life, from birth through death.
Pam Hayes, a friend of Burrow’s made the $2,000 winning bed to take the quilt home. She had donated fabric for the quilt that had belonged to her mother, Edna, an avid quilter, after she passed away earlier this year.
“The fact that she went home with the quilt that had such special meaning to her meant a lot to me,” said Burrow, who has been quilting for 25 years. “Plus I just love Women Helping Women, and was happy to support such a worthwhile cause.”
