Breast cancer advocate Lorraine Pace of West Islip honored for her work

When Lorraine Pace, 81, of West Islip, was first diagnosed with breast cancer 30 years ago, she was angry.

How, she thought, could she be diagnosed with breast cancer after living the "right" way, in good health with a nutritious diet and exercise?

“I had a fire in my belly. I was so angry. I knew I did everything I was supposed to do to prevent cancer and I knew so many women didn't fall into so-called risk factors for cancers,” Pace said recently. “Before I started treatment, I said something is not right, something is wrong. I’m getting it from somewhere and I think it's the environment.”

So on her kitchen table she plotted out with sticky notes a map of other women on Long Island diagnosed with breast cancer. Her work in 1992 led the way for the Breast Cancer Mapping Project, which showed clusters of hot spots on the Island where cancer was being found.

Pace was honored last week at Jake's 58 casino in Islandia, where she was given 30 pink balloons for 30 years of service by Suffolk County officials and the Suffolk OTB.

The casino donated $15,000 to the American Cancer Society in Pace’s honor to raise awareness for early detection of breast cancer and prostate cancer.

“You did a lot of work. This community never gives up,” casino general manager Michael Bonakdar told Pace. “You have really helped Long Island be on the forefront of breast cancer research.”

The American Cancer Society also promoted fundraising and awareness of the Jones Beach Making Strides of Long Island breast cancer walk, which officials described as the largest walk in the nation, on Oct. 16 at Jones Beach. Last year the event drew nearly 50,000 participants and raised $1.7 million for cancer research.

Breast cancer hot zone

Although the direct source of Pace’s cancer was not determined, doctors later found that Long Island is a hot zone for certain diagnoses like breast cancer.

In an effort to address this problem, Stony Brook Medicine's mobile mammography van travels into communities where women may not have access to testing and conducts mammograms, regardless of insurance, at places like libraries and churches. Stony Brook then maps that information to try to find hot spots, rather than wait for breast cancer to be diagnosed at a later age, said the program's coordinator, Dr. Patrick Dineen.

“In today’s research, oriented mapping is being done to locate hot spots detecting where trends are causing an increase of breast cancer on Long Island,” said Dineen. “There are high incidents on Long Island and we’re trying to find out why. The two counties, Suffolk and Nassau, have some of the highest rates in the nation and the question is why. Is it something in the environment and can it be controlled so we can see a decrease in the future?”

Medical experts credit Pace for drawing more attention to breast cancer detection and encouraging more women to get tested earlier.

“The awareness is not because of me, but support from my family and volunteers,” Pace said. “When women see this they do something. My advice is to go get screened. Don't put it off. Early detection is our best detection. We need to find out why it (breast cancer) is so high on Long Island.”