Fannie Lou Hamer Cancer Foundation receives $9k donation

From The Mississippi Link Newswire

RULEVILLE – The Fannie Lou Hamer Cancer Foundation in Ruleville, recently received a generous donation of $9,000 from the Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility in Tutwiler.

Freddie White-Johnson, founder and president of the Foundation, accepted the check from Shirley Walker, case management and supervisor of the Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility. White-Johnson also serves as program director of the Mississippi Network for Cancer Control and Prevention (MNCCP) at The University of Southern Mississippi.

Formed in 2010, the MNCCP strives to reduce or eliminate disparities in the mortality rates of breast, cervical, colorectal and prostate cancers in Mississippi. To that end, the Network concentrates on cancer awareness, education, research, advocacy and increasing utilization of proven life-saving early detection screenings.

An important off-shoot of the University’s health awareness campaign has been the development of the Fannie Lou Hamer Cancer Foundation, a non-profit organization that offers financial support and other resources to bolster the Network’s efforts.

According to White-Johnson, the donation from the private prison facility will support the cancer education activities in Tallahatchie County and other Delta counties. White-Johnson is currently spearheading a multi-million dollar fundraising effort to build a state-of-the-art cancer resource center named for Hamer in Ruleville.