THE Great Gatsby Party and Silent Auction staged by the Feathers and Fedora team on March 29 netted almost $1.9 million, which was handed over to the Jamaica Cancer Society.

The money is expected to go towards the ongoing operation of the mobile mammography unit, donated to the society by Scotiabank in 2001, which has brought mammography screening to over 15,000 women across Jamaica.

“Breast cancer continues to be the leading cause of cancer mortality in Jamaican women,” Yulit Gordon, executive director of the Jamaica Cancer Society, said. “Research has shown that medically underserved women have higher breast cancer mortality rates attributed to under-screening and disproportionate rates of late-stage disease at diagnosis.

“The incidence of breast cancer for the period 2003-2007, was 43.1 per 100,000 women, with 720 new cases within Kingston and St Andrew alone for the same period,” said Gordon.

Prior to 2011, the mobile unit was screening on average 1,500 women annually, howver this number was reduced to approximately 1,000 to 1,200 women over the past three years, due to the numerous incidences of downtime of the mobile mammography unit.

Gordon lauded the Feathers and Fedora team for their effort and made a public appeal to other members of society to come forward and make a difference in the lives of the less fortunate.

The Great Gatsby Party and Silent Auction, which was held at the Terra Nova All Suite Hotel, was greatly supported by corporate Jamaica who not only came out in their numbers but donated generously towards the silent auction which included Usain Bolt- signed memorabilia.