Community Corner

Mary Ann Wasil: Changing the World One Girl at a Time

The founder of The Get in Touch Foundation talks about her quest to educate young girls and women around the world about breast cancer.

Reported and written by Regional Editor Gary Jeanfaivre 

Mary Ann Wasil is determined to change the world — one girl at a time.

A breast cancer survivor, Wasil is the founder of The Get In Touch Foundation. She is the winner of the Oprah Magazine CoverGirl 2010 Giving Beautiful Back Award, and she just released her own book, "A Diary of Healing: My Intense and Meaningful Life with Cancer."

Wasil lives in Milford, Conn., with her son and two daughters. Patch caught up with Wasil via email and asked her a few questions. Here's what she had to say:

What’s the biggest challenge you’ve taken on? 

We developed the Get In Touch Girls’ Program & Daisy Wheel with the intention of providing our free breast health educational initiative to 5th grade girls all over the world. We quickly realized that these already ambitious numbers needed to increase and Daisy Wheels needed to be in the hands of girls in grades 5 through 12; an 800% increase in Daisy Wheels and girls! 

What inspired you to take on this challenge?  

My own two daughters were just turning 12 and 13 when I was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2004. Teaching them the importance of, and how to do a breast self exam became paramount, a critical family health care initiative since my daughter’s would now be considered “high risk” for breast cancer. I soon realized that all of our daughters, not just the ones that call me “Mom,” needed access to this important breast health information.

Did you succeed?

We launched The Get In Touch Girls’ Program & Daisy Wheels on Sept. 1, 2009. Our program is now being implemented in 50 states, Washington, DC, and 21 countries. We have a free Daisy Wheel app on the iTunes Store that has been downloaded in 78 countries since its June 2011 launch. Between our Daisy Wheels and our Daisy Wheel app, we have an 80-country reach, making our dream of “changing the world one girl at a time” a dream come true!


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