Nearly 100 tennis players, including several breast-cancer survivors, will play to defeat the second-leading killer of American women in the eighth annual “Westside Challenge to Beat Breast Cancer” tennis tournament on Saturday, October 22.
The 50-game round-robin tennis marathon raises funds to underwrite the low-cost mammography screening program at Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center, which provides potentially lifesaving mammograms and follow-up diagnostic care, if needed, to uninsured or underinsured women in the community.
Last year, the hospital provided low-cost mammograms to almost 200 uninsured or underinsured women and breast health educational materials to more than 10,000 community residents.
Now in its eighth year, the fund-rasider was founded by breast cancer survivor, Nina Nisenholtz, who said, “I want other women to understand that breast cancer can and will be beaten through education and preventive measures. If not for the mammogram, my cancer may not have been detected until it was too late.”
In addition to the tennis tournament, an awards reception and silent auction are also on tap. Children will be treated to face painting, entertainment, and a ’Wheel of Fortune.’It will take place at the UCLA/Los Angeles Tennis Center on the UCLA campus. The tennis tourney and silent auction are scheduled from noon to 3:30 p.m., and the reception will take place from 4 to 6 p.m. in the Straus Clubhouse.
