Jeannie Blaylock
First Coast News
Buddy Check 12™
Ms. Blaylock will
serve as Hostess of
Riding Into History™ 2008
Rick Baron
Friend and Supporter
of Riding Into History™
In April 1992, representatives from Baptist Health and First Coast News Joined together to work on a community service project to promote breast cancer awareness.
They soon found a direction for this effort. More than one in nine women in America develop breast cancer in their lifetime, yet relatively few regularly perform a breast self-exam, also called a BSE, which is a quick test that gives a woman a better chance of finding breast cancer early and at its most curable stage.
To address this, they developed a three-step "buddy" program to create a lifestyle change and make it a habit for women to perform BSEs regularly. Baptist Health and First Coast News decided to call the program Buddy Check 12™, and its three simple steps are as follows:
- Find a "buddy";
- Pick a day of the month to remind each other to perform a BSE; and
- Check with your buddy on the agreed-upon day to remind each other about BSE and ask, "Did you do it?"
In the 14 years since the program was launched, more than 250 Jacksonville women say that Buddy Check 12™ has saved their lives. More than 500,000 women on the First Coast are buddies for breast health, and the program has spread to over 50 cities across the United States and in other countries. Jeannie Blaylock of First Coast News became the first person in Jacksonville to win a Peabody Award, a national award given for excellence in broadcasting, for her contribution to the creation of Buddy Check 12™.