Whiteside County Health Department was awarded a $40,000 Ticket for the Cure grant to promote breast cancer education efforts and to help provide supportive services for breast cancer victims and their families.

“Early detection is fundamental in the fight against breast cancer. Ticket for the Cure is not only raising awareness about this disease, it is also raising money to educate women about the importance of early detection and the need for routine mammograms and breast exams. I want to thank the people of Illinois for the success of Ticket for the Cure and for the money it has generated to help fight breast cancer,” said Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich in news conference Feb. 28 in Chicago.

Beth Fiorini, Whiteside County Public Health Administrator, stated “What makes this grant especially exciting is that we wrote it for both Whiteside and Lee Counties. It gives us an opportunity to work in partnership with a neighboring county. We will get more bang for our buck by collaborating with Lee on activities and marketing.” More than 100 not-for-profit institutions and organizations applied for the grants to fund education and supportive services. The Illinois Department of Public Health, Office of Women’s Health awarded 41 grants totaling $2 million. Individual grants ranged from $10,000 to $85,000.

“We received many impressive applications detailing programs aimed at increasing early detection awareness, educating women, offering support services and improving the effectiveness of mammography screening” said Dr. Eric E. Whitaker, IDPH health director.

The grant receives its funds from the Illinois Lottery’s Ticket for the Cure lottery games. Launched in January 2006, Ticket for the Cure is the nation’s first lottery ticket dedicated to helping fund breast cancer early detection, education, research, and patient services throughout the state.

All 100 percent of the proceeds from Ticket for the Cure support programs and research initiatives to help diagnose and treat breast cancer. So far, the ticket has raised more than $3 million. Of that amount, $2 million is going to community grants; The remaining money will be used for research grants which the state will announce this summer.

Whiteside County Health Department