Hi Holly-
Snopes.com is a great website to check out any sort of urban
legend.
Turns out the mammmogram clicking website is a valid one, it
just takes
a LOT of clicks to get a free mammogram. Here's the link
for those
interested in learning more:
h
ttp://www.snopes.com/inboxer/charity/mammogram.asp
Karen
Holly Anderson writes:
>
>
>
> From: Holly Anderson <HBerryWood_at_AOL.COM>
Date: Fri Mar 31 2006 -
> 21:49:41 EST
>
>
>
>
> Hi all, I received the following e-mail from a friend
and I must
> admit that I am at a loss for what to tell her. I have
had the same
> e-mail forwarded to me umpteen times but have never
gone and clicked
> because I am sick of all the marketing gimmicks that
seem to follow
> breast cancer like a plague. Can anyone convince me
either way?
> xoxo Holly
> ---------------------
> Holly,
>
> There is a website which claims to provide free
mammograms for every
> click it receives. Someone asked me today whether it is
legitimate;
> i.e. do people actually receive the free tests? I do
not have the site
> name but I know I have received it periodically and
then I click it
> too. Thank you. Hope all is going well down there.
>
> Josie
>
>
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> subscribe, unsubscribe, go digest, etc. by pointing and
clicking) see:
>
> http://www.bclist.org/
>
>
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> ********
> Received on Fri Mar 31 21:51:29 2006
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>>Can anyone convince me either way? xoxo Holly
Well, it depends on who you listen to.
I say that when I went to that site, it was hard to find the
button to
click for the free mammograms among all the, uh,
"things" (trying to be
polite here), for sale. That's always a red flag for me.
Urbanlegends.about.com (I don't know if they're reliable,
they just came
up second on google) says:
"Comments: Except for the part where it says
"The Breast Cancer Site is
having trouble getting enough people to click on it
daily," this dated
email flier (circulating since 2001) remains basically true.
In 2002
alone, the highly successful site and its advertisers funded
a total of
1,624 free mammograms for underprivileged women, thanks to
the daily
clicks of visitors. The Breast Cancer Site has been reviewed
by health
advocacy groups and various media outlets and recommended by
sources
like Ms. Magazine. It is well worth a daily visit."
Here's what BCA said on this, and then they used the topic
as a
launching pad for some of their mammogram-in-general
opinions:
http://www.bcaction.org/Pages/GetInformed/ClickforMa
mmo.html
"Have you been sent an email asking you to visit
www.thebreastcancersite.com and click a button to “fund free
mammograms?” It sounds like a caring thing to do—it’s quick,
it’s easy,
and it helps low-income women get screened for breast
cancer. But is
this what women living with and at risk for breast cancer
really need?
Consider this: Taxpayer-funded programs already exist to
provide
screening mammograms to low-income women. Every state has a
Breast and
Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program (BCCEDP) through the
Center for
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) at
www.cdc.gov/cancer/nbccedp/index.htm. This federally funded
program does
community outreach and pays providers who perform
mammograms. While it’s
true that the federal program has some limitations and
doesn’t cover
everyone, The Breast Cancer Site is essentially raising
money for a
service that is already being provided.
What every state does not yet provide is comprehensive
treatment for
poor women with breast cancer. In some states today, women
are being
tested for breast and cervical cancer, and many of them will
have little
or no access to treatment if they are diagnosed. This is why
Breast
Cancer Action, in coalition with many others, fought hard to
get
California to provide breast cancer treatment to the state’s
uninsured
and under-insured women. (For more info on the federal
Breast and
Cervical Cancer Prevention and Treatment Act of 2000, and
the states
that have adopted a treatment program.)
Until we can get our government to provide the healthcare we
all
deserve, wouldn’t low-income women be better served if The
Breast Cancer
Site helped clinics pay for treatment of breast cancer, or
helped these
women with the other hardships they face (like
transportation to
treatment, high rents, utilities, or access to complementary
therapies)?
Screening mammograms do sometimes lead to earlier diagnosis
and a high
five-year survival rate. They also provide poor women some
access to the
healthcare system, where they can possibly get their other
health needs
met. However, screening alone will not end the breast cancer
epidemic,
nor will it end the suffering of those who are diagnosed
with the
disease when they have little financial resources.
You may also be asking, “Just how much money is generated,
and where
does the money go?” It’s impossible to say for sure. The
Breast Cancer
Site (TBCS) offers several advertising plans to accommodate
their broad
range of sponsors. The advertisers can pay a fee based on
the number of
visitors to a particular web page, a cost per click on their
ad, a
percentage of any purchase, a fee per registrant or sign up,
or a fixed
amount for any new customer. Prior to this the advertiser
paid a flat
fee, but they state that recently many advertisers have
shifted to a "pay-per-
performance" model, allowing them to pay only when a
visitor takes some
action - clicking on an ad, purchasing an item. TBCS states
that it has
moved to a more flexible advertising model that allows them
to attract
more advertisers.
There is no data on how much of the proceeds that the NBCF
receives is
used to actually pay for mammograms, since the NBCF does
not actually
offer mammography screening. Instead the NBCF “[gives]
grants directly
through designated programs.” The actual dollar amounts are
never
disclosed; in their place are lists of the number of clicks
and number
of mammograms.
So how many clicks does it take to fund a free mammogram?
TBCS’s Daily
Results page from previous years shows that 1 click is worth
approximately 0.00005 of a mammogram; in other words, it
takes well over
18,000 clicks to fund one mammogram. The cost of a mammogram
varies from
site to site, anywhere from $50 to $150, making a click
worth a tiny
fraction of a penny. TBCS uses this high ratio of clicks to
mammograms
as an excuse to encourage people to convince their friends
to visit the
site, and to visit it on a daily basis since people are only
allowed to
click once per day. The Breast Cancer Site expects you, the
concerned
consumer, to do all the work of marketing their site.
Meanwhile, it
reaps untold amounts in advertising from those who sponsor
the site.
We are also made to believe that we are making a vast
difference in the
fight against breast cancer. Some will argue that if just
one woman
discovers her breast cancer because of this site that makes
it all
worthwhile. But wouldn’t it be better if more women could
benefit, and
if it didn’t take over 18,000 clicks? Imagine if 18,000
people wrote a
letter or made a phone call to their legislator about breast
cancer
treatment or prevention. Imagine if supporting our
healthcare
infrastructure were a priority, or if research into the
causes of breast
cancer got as much funding as detection and treatment. There
is so much
more to the breast cancer movement than simply mammograms.
So what can you do? Send an e-mail to the National Breast
Cancer
Foundation at info nationalbreastcancer.org requesting that
it use some
of the money raised to guarantee treatment for the women it
helps
screen. Simply referring patients to other agencies for
treatment does
not address the various needs of poor women, nor does it
insure that
poor women diagnosed with breast cancer do not continue to
fall through
the cracks.
Finally, don’t forget that mammograms are only part of the
picture.
Mammography is a detection device—it can only find breast
cancer that
already exists, and it only finds breast cancer some of the
time. One
often hears that “mammography is your best protection,” but
early
detection is no defense against the disease. Real protection
will only
come through understanding what causes breast cancer. Until
we put more
resources into real prevention (finding and eliminating the
causes of
cancer), all women are at risk. To learn more about the
realities of
breast cancer and what you can do to change them, visit
Breast Cancer
Action at www.bcaction.org or e-mail infobcaction.org. For more
information on BCA's efforts to follow the money that's
raised in the
name of breast cancer and to revolutionize the research
agenda visit our
Think Before You Pink website:
www.thinkbeforeyoupink.org."
--
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http://bclist.petebevin.
com/
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> Hi all,
>
> I received the following e-mail from a friend and I
must admit that I am
> at
> a loss for what to tell her. I have had the same
e-mail forwarded to me
> umpteen times but have never gone and clicked because I
am sick of all the
> marketing gimmicks that seem to follow breast cancer
like a plague. Can
> anyone
> convince me either way?
>
> xoxo
> Holly
> ---------------------
> Holly,
>
> There is a website which claims to provide free
mammograms for every
> click
> it receives. Someone asked me today whether it is
legitimate; i.e. do
> people actually receive the free tests? I do not have
the site name but
> I know I
> have received it periodically and then I click it too.
If this is the breast cancer site, which also has links to
similar sites
foir Rainforests, Child Hunger and some other worthy causes,
it's been
checked *and found to be genuine* both by list members and
by independent
investigators aka nosy journalists.
Cheers
Don Price
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