Three DJs take breast cancer battle to young-Roswell

Thanks to my friend Ang (Oku) for sending this in:

Three DJs take breast cancer battle to young
Phil Kloer – Staff
Tuesday, October 17, 2000

Six years ago, Star 94 morning DJ Vikki Locke found a lump in her breast. It
turned out to be benign, but, she says, “I know what that fear is.”

Tonight, Locke joins with two other radio hosts who are normally her
competition — Leslie Fram of 99X and Porsche Foxx of V-103 — to educate
young women about breast cancer. And they’ll be on the right platform to
reach their young audience — Channel 36, Atlanta’s WB affiliate, which is
donating all its local ad time from 8 to 11 tonight during “Buffy the
Vampire Slayer,” “Angel” and reruns of “Seinfeld” and “Friends.”

They’ll talk among themselves and introduce taped vignettes with WB stars,
including Alyson Hannigan (“Buffy”), Katherine Heigl and Jason Behr
(“Roswell”), Nikki Cox (“Nikki”), Leslie Bibb, Ron Lester and Carly Pope of
“Popular” and Irene Molloy, Lindsay Sloane and Bonnie Somerville of “Grosse
Pointe.”

“I don’t believe the message is out there to young women that self-breast
examination is vital,” says Fram of 99X’s “Morning X.”

“We’ve all been told that when you get to be 40, that’s when you start
having your mammograms,” Fram says. “But no one ever speaks to women in
their 20s and 30s. I was unaware that there are a lot of women in their 20s
who have had breast cancer. And doctors are not proactive in telling women
to do self-exams.”

According to the American Cancer Society, a woman’s risk of breast cancer at
age 20 is one in 19,608. At age 30, it increases to one in 2,535 and at age
40 to one in 217. The five-year survival rate when breast cancer is caught
in its earliest stages is 97 percent. October is Breast Cancer Awareness
Month.

Foxx and the other radio hosts also will interview young breast cancer
survivors on their own shows today to emphasize the message of regular
self-exams.

“It’s really something when you hear a young woman say, ‘I’m a breast cancer
survivor,’ ” says Foxx, who will interview 27-year-old Julia Chriss. “It’s
great to hear her say, ‘I’m alive today ’cause I caught it early and did
something.’ ”

> ON THE WEB:

The Young Survival Coalition: www.youngsurvival.org