GROWING CONCERN: October is National Breast Cancer...

GROWING CONCERN: October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, when women will be encouraged to get medical screenings. When the local chapter of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation opened four years ago, it managed to bring in 400 new women for testing its first year. This past year, that number jumped to almost 1,500. . . . Since opening, the foundation chapter also has raised more than $1 million, most of it going to provide testing for women with inadequate insurance to cover the costs.

HITTING HOME: When Jaquin D. Anastasio of Dana Point meets with women’s groups, she always asks who knows someone who has had breast cancer. “Almost everyone raises her hand,” says Anastasio. “Breast cancer touches so many of us.” Anastasio was co-chair of Sunday’s annual Race for the Cure in Newport Beach, which raises funds mainly for breast cancer testing. . . . “If we can get more women to enter early detection programs,” she says, “the better chance any necessary treatment can be successful. That’s our goal, to get women tested.”

FORE A CAUSE: Diane Dietsche is an avid golfer. So when she was recently named executive director of the American Cancer Society for Orange County, she brought her golf clubs with her. . . . There’s a Cancer Society golf outing fund-raiser to promote prostrate cancer education Oct. 2, and a similar one for breast cancer Oct. 23. . . . “We raise money, we have fun, and we educate women about breast cancer,” Dietsche says. Priorities she has singled out: Breast cancer, prostate cancer and tobacco control.

BEAUTY DEFENSE: One problem for breast cancer victims: worrying about their looks, especially with hair loss after chemotherapy. The Cancer Society has a beauty care program it calls “Look Good Feel Better.” One of its organizers, Nancy Ince of Anaheim, says wigs and make-up work wonders for some cancer patients: “Everything in their lives at this time is so negative; we try to add a spark to their face. It’s amazing how their outlook changes.” . . . Ince should know--she’s a cancer survivor herself.