Our Founder
Sheila Mikhail founded BC Ruckus after her breast cancer was missed by repeated mammograms due to her dense breast tissue. Sheila turned her painful experience into action by creating BCRuckus and launching a campaign to educate women across North Carolina about the importance of supplemental screening for women with dense breasts.
We invite you to follow Sheila on LinkedIn, where she talks about her breast cancer journey and shares information with women and policymakers on the need for insurance coverage of supplemental screening for women with dense breasts.
Our Mission
BCRuckus seeks to increase awareness about issues pertaining to breast cancer screening and diagnosis. In particular, we seek to educate women about the importance of knowing their breast tissue density and the implications this may have on the reliability of mammography to detect tumors in dense tissue. We inform women about supplemental imaging options that are able to distinguish tumors from dense breast tissue. We also lead initiatives focused on policy changes that will make these supplemental imaging options available to women with dense breast tissue at no cost.
- To increase awareness about the limitations of mammography as a solo platform for diagnosing women with dense breast tissue
- To increase awareness of the prevalence of women with dense breast tissue who would not benefit from our current standard practice
- To increase awareness of the available diagnostic platforms that are capable of distinguishing tumors regardless of breast tissue density with greater sensitivity
- To make these diagnostic modalities available and accessible to women at low or no cost ( Find it Early Act or through other means)
- To encourage national, professional organizations to adopt these modalities as part of their recommended guidelines for breast cancer screening and diagnosis
- To encourage the adoption of these modalities as part of routine follow-up for women with dense breast tissue and/or heightened breast cancer risk
