Pat Halpin-Murphy, the President and Founder of the Pennsylvania Breast Cancer Coalition (PBCC), will be among the speakers at the opening of the York Health Boutique for Women at 1601 Second Avenue in York, Thursday, February 17th at 7 p.m.

Halpin-Murphy, a breast cancer survivor, founded the PBCC in 1993 to speak to and for the more than 152,000 breast cancer survivors in Pennsylvania. Among the PBCC's programs are the award winning Mothers Day Mammogram© program; the Keystone Breast Cancer Conference held each October in Harrisburg; a traveling photo exhibit called "67 Women - 67 Counties: Facing Breast Cancer in Pennsylvania and the "Income Tax Check-off" program for breast cancer research. Halpin-Murphy will be talking about the tax check-off program and the need for breast cancer research to end an epidemic that takes the lives of more than 2300 Pennsylvania women each year. "The women we are losing are our mothers, daughters, sisters and friends. Research funding is vital to finding a cure now... so our daughters won't have to," said Halpin-Murphy.

In 1997, through legislation initiated by the Pennsylvania Breast Cancer Coalition, Governor Tom Ridge established an income tax check check-off provision allowing Pennsylvanians to donate their state tax refund to breast and cervical cancer research. In its first two years the program has raised more than $500,000. One hundred percent of the money raised is presented as grants to researchers across the state. In April 1999, Governor Tom Ridge and First Lady Michele Ridge, Honorary Chair of the PBCC, presented grants averaging $25,000 to eleven researchers. Second-year grants will be presented later this year.

The Pennsylvania Breast Cancer Coalition, founded in 1993, is a non-profit organization. It serves each of the state's 67 counties though programs such as the Income Tax Check Off program, Mother's Day Mammograms®, the Keystone Breast Cancer Conference and "67 Women, 67 Counties: Facing Breast Cancer in Pennsylvania." The Pennsylvania Breast Cancer Coalition's mission is to find a cure for breast cancer and to improve the quality of breast cancer education, outreach and research in the state.

The York Health Boutique for Women is owned by Danna Livelsberger and Urithann Lavetan, both breast cancer survivors who started the boutique to ease the difficult journey for women who have cancer. Other presenters at the opening include York County Commissioner Shirley Glass, Miss York County Dana Miliniak and local singer/songwriter Julie Nevel.

A public open house will be held Saturday, February 19th from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.