Good News Now:
Armed with clipboards, leaflets and high spirits, the energetic Ivory leads them into the neighborhood, where they start knocking on doors. The mood is lighthearted, but their mission is serious: to save lives, one house at a time.
They're volunteers from the Florida Breast Health Initiative, and they are waging war against breast cancer. It's an effort started by Ivory, 50, herself a survivor of the disease.
Every weekend in the spring and fall, she and her volunteers -- who include college students, senior citizens and suburban moms, all wearing matching T-shirts -- fan out across low-income communities in southern Florida, educating women about breast health.
They especially seek out uninsured women age 35 and older, who statistics show are twice as likely to be diagnosed with late-stage breast cancer, and thus more likely to die from the disease.
For Ivory, comparing this work to a battle isn't overblown.
"The only thing that we have to fight this disease and lower the mortality rate is early detection," she says. "We are the troops on the front lines."
Since 2006, Ivory has helped provide more than 500 mammograms to eligible women.
