Overview

            Meet the People Behind the Pink!

Y-ME National Breast Cancer Organization is the only place in the world where someone touched by breast cancer can call – 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year – to talk to a breast cancer survivor and be understood in 150 different languages.  For more than 30 years, Y-ME has been working to assure that no one faces breast cancer alone.  We started the Y-ME Hotline at a time when people didn’t talk about cancer, newspapers didn’t print the words “breast” or “cancer,” and doctors didn’t always tell their patients their diagnosis, much less discuss treatment options.

Times have changed.  Today, we know much more about the biology of breast cancer.  Patients have changed too – they have access to potentially overwhelming amounts of data, and they expect to be partners in their own treatment.  Y-ME is changing to meet the demands of today’s breast cancer patient, while maintaining a commitment to our core mission of providing peer support for patients every step of the way, because some things haven’t changed.  There is still no substitute for talking to someone who has been in your shoes after a doctor tells you that you have cancer.

Read About Y-ME's Founders: Mimi Kaplan and Ann Marcou

Y-ME’s Peer Counselors
Y-ME provides 24/7/365 support through our network of 141 trained peer counselors, made up of 19 full-time staff and 122 volunteers across 22 states.  This means there is a trained peer counselor available every minute of the day – whenever the need is there.  Diversity is critical.  Approximately 50% of our counselors are either Latina or African-American.  Y-ME is one of the only resources available in Spanish and is widely used in the Spanish-language community.  And through real-time interpretation services, our counselors are available in over 150 languages.

The Survivor Match Program lets you request to be paired with a peer counselor who had the same diagnosis, is the same age or has experienced similar challenges as you.

The Partner Match Program provides support and education for people while they are supporting a wife, partner or other loved one through the disease.

Peer Counselor Training
Training is critical to assuring that every caller gets adequate support and reliable information.  Every peer counselor must complete a basic 40-hour training module that includes instruction on handling both informational and emotional issues and pass a certification test.  They must be recertified each year based on an ongoing series of continuing education courses to keep them up-to-date on new developments in diagnosis, treatment, and research.  Last year, a dozen new breast cancer survivors were rigorously trained as Y-ME peer counselors.

In the past year, Y-ME has also added new training programs designed to meet the specialized needs of today’s breast cancer patients.  Specialized training curricula were developed on Triple Negative Breast Cancer and on Metastatic Disease, and over two dozen peer counselors have received their Advanced Peer Counselor certifications so far this year.  All counselors who complete these special programs have undergone a total of over 100 hours of intense training.

Wig and Prosthesis Program
An important part of emotional support during the cancer journey is regaining a sense of “normal” amid diagnosis, treatment, and recovery.  Y-ME helps breast cancer patients and survivors regain their sense of well-being and self-confidence by providing bras, wigs, and/or prostheses at no cost to breast cancer patients with limited financial resources.

Support Groups
Y-ME’s network of support groups across the country is another way it provides peer to peer support to patients in need.  The network consists of 25 groups in 10 states, each led by a trained Y-ME breast cancer survivor or health care professional.  Groups meet each month and vary depending on the needs of the participants.  Some provide speakers that focus on specific educational topics; others are open discussion among survivors.  Over 2,000 women took part in our support groups last year.

Gerry Weinberg Resource Library
The Gerry Weinberg Library lends books to anyone concerned about breast cancer.  Over 200 books about breast cancer, treatment, and general wellness are available for lending.  All our materials are available for a lending period of one month and come with a postage-paid envelope for patrons to return the book when they are finished.
 

All Y-ME programs and services are available free-of-charge.
Talk to a peer counselor at 1-800-221-2141.