"I would have given up further medical treatment on breast cancer because of the economic condition of my family. Thanks to your help, I have been granted with both free medical screening and 10,000 yuan in cash," a rural recipient from Central China's Hunan Province said with gratitude to workers of the China Women's Development Foundation (CWDF).

The CWDF initiated a charity project to care for women suffering from breast cancer with the support of Shanghai Roche Pharmaceutical Co, Ltd. The Changsha Women's Federation (in Hunan Province), the Changsha Health Commission and the Changsha Women and Children's Development Foundation implemented the project.

The project aims at providing major illness relief and medical insurance assistance to patients with HER2-positive breast cancer as a supplement to the free screening of breast and cervical cancers for women of the right age.

Over the past year, the project has provided 100,000 women in Changsha with one year's insurance coverage against the breast cancer and it offered assistance to the women diagnosed with breast cancer through screening of the disease.

As one of the main implementers of the project, the city's women's federation has issued 88,000 brochures and 200 picture albums on prevention and treatment of breast cancer, and it held 40 training sessions and lectures for local women to raise their awareness of breast health and early intervention in breast cancer. It benefits more than 100,000 women.

The "Changsha Model" of aiding the breast cancer patients is guided by the local government, supported by enterprises and organized by social organizations, and the CWDF will promote the model nationwide.

(Source: China Women's News/Translated and edited by Women of China)