For more than 20 years, a local service organization has done its part to help local women prevent breast cancer.

Soroptimist International of Oak Harbor’s mammogram program helps women pay for screening when they can’t afford it.

“They come to us as a last resort,” said Sally Maylor, a past president of Soroptimist. “It was started to help women who can’t afford a mammogram or don’t have insurance.”

The program, now administered through the nonprofit Whidbey General Hospital Foundation, pays for the initial mammogram as well as any follow-up diagnostic mammograms that may be needed. Since the program’s inception, Maylor estimates more than 500 women have taken advantage of the program.

The group also rallied the community several years ago to raise $250,000 digital mammography machine for Whidbey General Hospital’s North Whidbey Community Clinic.

About one in eight U.S. women will develop invasive breast cancer over the course of their lifetimes.

Getting a high-quality screening mammogram and having a clinical breast exam on a regular basis are the most effective ways to detect breast cancer early, according to the National Cancer Institute.

“We all have friends, relatives, loved ones and acquaintances touched by breast cancer,” Maylor said. “It’s important to get a mammogram so you aren’t one of the statistics.”