Pink Polar Bear Golf Raises Funds over $10,000 For Eleanor & Ethel Leh Women’s Center

Members of the Chester River Yacht & Country Club organized and participated in the 12th annual Pink Polar Bear Golf Tournament this summer, raising a record $10,200 to benefit patients served at the Eleanor & Ethel Leh Women’s Center at UM Shore Medical Center at Chestertown.

This year’s event attracted nearly 90 club members and guests. Since 2015, the event has raised over $30,000 to support breast cancer detection at the hospital.

“We call it the Pink Polar Bear tournament because finding breast cancer can be a little like trying to find a polar bear in a blizzard,” said Kelly Bottomley, Manager of Outpatient Radiology Services for University of Maryland Shore Regional Health. “Our tomosynthesis mammography technology takes breast images in ‘slices,’ much like a CT scanner, and makes it possible to detect breast cancer at the earliest possible stage. Expanding our diagnostic breast services here though MRI technology puts our capabilities at best-in-class.”

“We are grateful beyond words,” said Maryann Ruehrmund, Executive Director, UM Chester River Health Foundation. “I hope participants will take great pride in knowing that the tournament’s proceeds will be designated for our upcoming campaign hoping to raise $1.3 million for new MRI equipment, including a special coil needed to perform MRI studies of the breast, which will soon be offered at UM Shore Medical Center at Chestertown.”

Opened in 2013, the Eleanor & Ethel Leh Women’s Center was the first facility on the Delmarva Peninsula to offer 3-D digital mammography with tomosynthesis, which can find breast cancer at the earliest possible stage. This capability is now available throughout the five-county area served by UM Shore Regional Health.
The Leh Center performs more than 2,800 mammograms each year, offers bone density evaluation services and consultation and follow-up appointments related to breast surgery. Breast surgery, reconstruction and plastic surgery takes place at UM Shore Medical Center at Chestertown.

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~ Chester River Health Foundation
The Chester River Health Foundation is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit Maryland corporation and the fiduciary responsible for soliciting, holding and disbursing charitable gifts that support excellence in patient care services exclusively at UM Shore Medical Center at Chestertown. It is governed by a volunteer Board of Directors. Contributions fund the purchase of new and replacement medical equipment and technology, capital projects and scholarships for advanced health care education. The Foundation offers a complete array of philanthropy programs, from soliciting annual gifts through assistance with estate and legacy gift planning.

About University of Maryland Shore Regional Health
As part of the University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS), University of Maryland Shore Regional Health is the principal provider of comprehensive health care services for more than 170,000 residents of Caroline, Dorchester, Kent, Queen Anne’s and Talbot counties on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. UM Shore Regional Health’s team of more than 2,200 employees, medical staff, board members and volunteers works with various community partners to fulfill the organization’s mission of Creating Healthier Communities Together.

About the University of Maryland Medical System
The University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS) is an academic private health system, focused on delivering compassionate, high quality care and putting discovery and innovation into practice at the bedside. Partnering with the University of Maryland School of Medicine and University of Maryland, Baltimore who educate the state’s future health care professionals, UMMS is an integrated network of care, delivering 25 percent of all hospital care in urban, suburban and rural communities across the state of Maryland. UMMS puts academic medicine within reach through primary and specialty care delivered at 11 hospitals, including the flagship University of Maryland Medical Center, the System’s anchor institution in downtown Baltimore, as well as through a network of University of Maryland Urgent Care centers and more than 150 other locations in 13 counties. For more information, visit www.umms.org.
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