Four months after Elaine Hill was diagnosed with a malignant tumor and
underwent a mastectomy, a tumor was discovered in the remaining breast and she found herself facing another mastectomy. Shortly after her initial diagnosis, Hill wanted to talk to someone who "walked in her shoes" and searched for a breast cancer support group but she came up empty-handed. In her hometown of Chattanooga, there just didn't seem to be a place where breast cancer patients and survivors could share information and find support.








Defeated but willing to give it another chance, Hill, along with a friend who didn't have breast cancer, tried one more approach. "We rounded women together for a meeting at my house, but it wasn't just for those with breast cancer, it was for anyone interested in women's issues," she says. "The mix of both survivors and non-survivors made it more comfortable for women to attend. The group included people from all walks of life and areas of expertise. I mentioned the support I got from the Y-ME hotline, so they said why reinvent the wheel — let's partner up with their national organization. And we did."

For the first five years, Hill was president and executive director of the Chattanooga group and worked out of her basement. She had successfully formed a support group of breast cancer survivors and even wrote a grant. "Being African American, I was also interested in the low survival rate of African American women, so I wanted to get funding in order to reach out to these women to get early detection. The grant provided money for mammograms and clinical evaluations.

To help reach and educate the African American population about breast cancer, a determined Hill, along with other Y-ME volunteers, went door to door encouraging women to attend workshops and schedule mammograms. She also spoke at church and neighborhood meetings, held workshops at senior citizen centers and talked every week to patients in the waiting rooms at community health centers.

Over the years, Y-ME Chattanooga has evolved from one group to several around town, including one for young survivors and one for women with metastases. "We also have an educational series open to the pubic," says Hill. "Professionals come in and talk about subjects of interest to breast cancer survivors."

Looking back, Hill admits that although it was a difficult road at first, it has been immensely rewarding. "There was a real need in the community and I am happy to do something to change that," says Hill, who is married with two sons and two grandchildren, and who could not have done any of this without their love and support.

Hill's legacy of serving those with breast cancer continues in the next generation through her son Everett Hill, who is on the national board of directors of Y-ME National Breast Cancer Organization and served as corporate chair for Atlanta's first Y-ME Race to Empower, which took place in 2007.