Janet Richards Foundation targeting 100 women for breast cancer screening
Published:Thursday | October 2, 2025 | 12:12 AMChristopher Thomas/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
The Janet Richards Foundation, renowned for its charitable work in western Jamaica, on Wednesday launched its annual breast cancer education and screening programme for women at the Hospiten medical facility in Montego Bay, St James, heralding the start of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, which is celebrated every October.
The programme has been in place since 2019, the same year the foundation was launched, and to date it has assisted approximately 700 women from St James and Hanover with breast cancer screening, with assistance from Hospiten. This year, the foundation is targeting 100 women for mammogram testing during October.
Simone Matheson, a beneficiary of the programme who attended Wednesday’s launch, expressed appreciation to both Hospiten and the Janet Richards Foundation for giving her and other women the opportunity to get screened for breast cancer, which is the leading cancer among Jamaican women.
“I have benefited from this programme for two years, and the experience at Hospiten has been amazing, because the staff are friendly; they check in on you and allow you to feel at home and not scared. Some women are very scared of doing their mammogram, but the process is a really friendly one, and [it] builds your confidence as you wait to get your results,” said Matheson.
“I look forward to doing another test under the Janet Richards Foundation’s programme, and I would advise any other woman that if you get the opportunity, go and get the test done.”
According to the World Health Organization, 2.3 million women worldwide were diagnosed with breast cancer in 2022, with 670,000 deaths globally from the disease and it being the most common cancer among women in 157 out of 185 countries. Breast cancer can also affect men, with roughly one per cent of breast cancer cases occurring in males.
Former banker Janet Richards, the founder of the Janet Richards Foundation, told The Gleaner that the programme, which will cost about $1 million this year, was inspired by a friend of hers who was diagnosed with breast cancer prior to the foundation’s launch.
“One of my best friends, a former neighbour of mine, was living in the United States and she found out late that she had breast cancer, as she was not doing her screening. As such, she asked me, during the launch of my foundation in 2019, to do this programme in western Jamaica, sponsoring 100 per cent of all the costs,” Richards explained.
“For the past six years, the Janet Richards Foundation makes sure that mammogram screening is one of our annual projects, by sponsoring women in St James and Hanover to get free screening, and we will be helping 100 women this year. Each year I have an opening ceremony whenever I am going to start the programme, and we talk about our expectations for the year,” Richards continued. “Today (Wednesday), during our launch, I gave Hospiten a certificate to say ‘thank you’ for all the years they have been helping me with this programme.”
Samuel Afonso Diaz, Hospiten’s country manager, thanked Richards and her foundation’s representatives for the opportunity to work together in tackling breast cancer, for which 1,208 new cases were found in Jamaica in 2020.
“On behalf of the Hospiten management team, I want to thank the Janet Richards Foundation for this opportunity, because for the last six years we have been helping you, and this is a part of our commitment to the community and to Jamaica. We are not just here to do our job, but also to go beyond that and help as much as we can,” said Diaz.