Young women facing breast cancer often feel alone, and can face issues that older women dealing with breast cancer never have to, ranging from dating and intimacy concerns to decisions about how to preserve fertility options before starting cancer treatment.

Compounding the problem is the fact that more women in the South face breast cancer at younger ages, mainly because black women, for reasons not understood, are more vulnerable to getting breast cancer when young. Add in the fact that the South is also more rural and access to support groups or other young women going through the same thing can be hard to find, and women can feel very alone.

And that's why we're here. SurviveDAT is the Louisiana partner (along with SurviveMISS in Mississippi and SurviveAL in Alabama) in the Gulf States Young Breast Cancer Survivor Network and we're here to help young women with breast cancer understand the issues they face and find resources and support as they negotiate the twists and turns of cancer. And we'd like you to help. If you're reading this blog, you're probably familiar with SurviveDAT and the help we can provide. But just in case you aren't, please take the time to explore this website and follow us our social media platforms. And then spread the word.

-Laura Ricks, LCP Communications Manager

SurviveDAT is one of the programs and projects of the Louisiana Cancer Prevention and Control Programs (LCP), funded mainly by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and housed at the LSU Health New Orleans School of Public Health.