As October’s recognition for Health Literacy and Breast Cancer Awareness concludes, residents and health experts in the D.C. metropolitan area are looking to shape better outcomes in patient care year-round, and some argue it starts in the region.
Thus, DC Health is leveraging $290,000 from Mayor Muriel Bowser’s Fiscal Year 26 Grow DC Budget to expand its Project WISH program across all eight wards, providing free breast and cervical cancer screening activities in an effort to disrupt one of the leading causes for cancer-related deaths among women in the District.
“The truth about breast cancer is it’s very, very dependent on what stage you’re diagnosed. We do have treatments that can be effective, but they are much more effective for early stage cancers,” DC Health Director Dr. Ayanna Bennett told The Informer. “We want to be sure that people are understanding what the point of the screening is, that it’s not just to get your diagnosis, but it’s to get as early a diagnosis as possible, [so] you get effective treatment–– and that is happening more for white women.”
Despite the fact that breast cancer is the top diagnosed cancer across all women, the realities of a public health system reliant on income, location, and “unfortunately, race” only fuels the fire of disparities in the nation’s capital, Bennett explained.
Data shows higher incidence rates, or people diagnosed with cancer, in Wards 3 and 6, while underserved Wards 5, 7 and 8 nearly double in mortality rate. Geographics aside, Black women altogether are nearly twice as likely to die from breast cancer compared to their white counterparts — all of which Bennett emphasized can be affected by the advancement of cancer.
“Cancer is survivable, it is treatable,” she said, “but it does take some care to make that happen, and we need women to be getting that care.”
On the health equity tip, Bennet and Maryland-based urologist Dr. Arthur Burnett, who specializes in prostate cancer, both note that lack of access is part of the problem, but eliminating cultural stigmas is, arguably, one of the key solutions.
Among the soluble suggestions touted in tandem with critical resources: boosting early detection, championing storytelling and self-advocacy, and recognizing health literacy as an all-hands-on-deck approach.
“We certainly have to improve access, and we’re very keen about that as well, but access may begin with helping all men, women, and families take better responsibility for their own health,” Burnett told The Informer. “They’re two different things, but they blend together…I think that just requires better communication, better sensitivity and awareness, and a lot of proactivity at all levels.”
Storytelling, ‘Marching to Your Own Drum’
With $290,000 to boost preventive care, Project WISH is shaping up to increase its reach of uninsured or underinsured residents, which already includes assisting more than 1,300 women with care coordination this year alone.
In addition to providing free transportation, the program offers patient navigators who guide residents through scheduling appointments, understanding next steps, and connecting with treatment resources in a timely fashion.
Nonetheless, Bennett says it takes more than gauging accessibility to truly eliminate existing barriers to health equity.
“Many communities that have access issues, or underlying trust issues, those are often the same communities, particularly in the Black community,” the director explained. “They really need to hear how someone else did, in order to move forward. We do some of that with our outreach…but that is absolutely something women in the community and our community-based organizations can do.”
One woman striving to positively affect breast care is Desiree Waters, a three-time cancer patient based in Upper Marlboro, Maryland.
Waters, a first-time collaborative author, dawned her health journey in the 2025 collection “When Cancer Knocks at Your Door,” where she transparently delved into the lived experiences that began with her first diagnosis of traditional breast cancer in 2017.
After beating it in its traditional form twice, even making it to the five-year mark some weeks before her second diagnosis in April 2023, Waters was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer (mBC) last August, causing cancerous cells to spread to her skull and form an irremovable tumor that sits behind her right eye.
“This is my way of helping people, letting people know that a diagnosis doesn’t have to be the end of your journey–in fact, it can be the beginning of a new one,” Waters told The Informer. “When you hear the word cancer, immediately you think of a death sentence…[when] it can be just tightening your grip, putting one foot in front of the other, and working with your doctors.”
The Maryland resident admitted that living with mBC has had its challenges compared to her previous bouts with cancer. Aside from the trials and tribulations of heavy duty medicine, Waters cites the previous loss of taste buds, facial numbness, and inevitable head pain.
Further, due to the medication’s influxed side effects, she notes that part of the process means having to “weigh out what I’m willing to live with.”
“That is still the biggest challenge. I’m not willing to live with a side effect that makes me not live,” she said. “Some of the medicine, I couldn’t even get up. I lost the ability to write, type, to walk [because] my knees, my toes would cramp up. It does a lot of things…so I’m kind of marching to my own drum.”
Similar to Bennett, Waters said she hopes that her story might open doors to deeper conversations surrounding breast care and health equity at large – not just among patients, but for caregivers too.
As both advocates shared plans to continue building a network of advocacy, the message was clear – tackling the matter is far more than a monthlong gig.
“I think there’s a real focus [on] trying to look at how this can be a sustainable change in the way people do things, not just a project for a time,” Bennett told The Informer. “There is a real shared goal of making sure that we deal with this disparity, not just that women get the care they need, but that we shall continue to see this mortality difference for women in D.C., and I think we’re making progress.”