Our communities suffer staggeringly high rates of serious chronic disease, including cancer, heart disease, and various lung ailments. In fact, Kentucky's cancer death rate is 33% above that of the national average. How can we lessen the grip chronic disease has on Appalachia? Smoking cessation and preventative cancer screenings. Yet Kentucky has the highest rate of smoking in the U.S., as well as one of the lowest rates of screenings for breast, cervical, and colorectal cancer. We want to change this.

When we began Faith Moves Mountains, we asked community members what health problems they really wanted to address in our Eastern Kentucky communities, and cancer prevention kept coming up. Now, with funding from the National Institutes of Health, we have launched Faith Moves Mountains: Quittin' & Preventin'. We aim to work with a total of 70 churches to help Kentuckians quit smoking and receive cancer screening. Trained lay health advisers hold weekly smoking cessation classes around the region and visit the homes of individuals interested in getting screened. We hope that people will kick their cigarette addictions and get the cancer screenings they need, and we know they'll have fun working with us. 

To get involved in this community-wide effort, please contact Nell Fields at nell.fields@uky.edu or Gwen Whitaker at whitaker.gwen@gmail.com.