About Us
Mission Statement
The West Islip Breast Cancer Coalition for Long Island, Inc. (WIBCC) is a non-profit 501 (c)3, volunteer, grassroots organization founded in 1992. It is our mission to reduce the incidences and severity of breast cancer diagnoses, by raising awareness to possible means of prevention and early detection. It is also part of our mission, to provide support services, through our Lend A Helping Hand Program, for those who are diagnosed and undergoing treatment for breast and/or gynecological cancers. After being directly responsible for the first comprehensive cancer cluster survey in Suffolk County, which led to a multi-year, Long Island breast cancer study, mandated by Congress in 1993, WIBCC continues to support research and advocacy as it pertains to breast cancer eradication.
WIBCC History
In early 1992 Lorraine Pace was diagnosed with Breast Cancer. When she was diagnosed with the breast cancer Lorraine realized that 20 people she knew, all of whom lived in her West Islip neighborhood south of Montauk Highway, also had breast cancer. That is what spurred her very public, relentless crusade to call attention to breast cancer in Suffolk County. Along with her husband John Pace, who did all of the legal work pro-bono, Lorraine founded the West Islip Breast Cancer Coalition for Long Island, Inc.
Lorraine was worried that chemicals dumped into the ground since 1932 were getting into our ground water. With the help and support of Dr. Michael J. Feinstein, Maria Diorio Pat Nichols, Mary Hibbard, and Michael Lo Grande, along with the support of Reverend Thomas Arnao, and the encouragement of Good Samaritan Hospital, Lorraine began to survey the women in her neighborhood about breast cancer and put their responses on a map. After 18 months, she and her cadre of volunteers had covered 8,750 homes in her ZIP code. This also spread nationwide and abroad due to the attention of the media. This was the beginning of the Breast Cancer Environmental Movement.