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Lady in pink campaigns against breast cancer Mail Tribune / Steve Johnson Ruth Wade races a pink lawnmower emblazoned with "MOW DOWN BREAST CANCER!" in her campaign to encourage women to get annual mammo-grams. By John Darling MEDFORD � Ruth Wade gets so mad about breast cancer she sees pink � pink crash helmet, pink jumpsuit and pink riding-lawnmower, all of which she uses in her endless campaign to stop the disease early by encouraging women to get annual mammograms. Since 1965, when she started as a breast X-ray technician in Medford, Wade has promoted breast self-examination and regular mammograms in countless lectures throughout the county given in partnership with Tony Drew of the Jackson County Health Department. At Medford Radiology Clinic, she helps perform up to 1,500 mammograms a month and is in charge of the licensing and testing of the machines under the federal Mammography Quality Standards Act. But spreading awareness about a disease that will strike one in eight women can be a little dreary, so one day Wade found the perfect PR gimmick � a riding lawnmower (minus blade), which she painted hot pink and emblazoned with "MOW DOWN BREAST CANCER!" Wearing her hot pink jumper and helmet, she drives in parades, mower-racing events, festivals and fund-raisers. Wade and her mower will be the main attraction Saturday at the annual CAP (Cancer Awareness Project) Walk-Run at Ashland Community Hospital. Wade contracted mower-racing fever from her family, she says. "My husband, Lee, and son David saw the sport of mower racing on a cable TV show and decided to jump right into it," she recalls. "David started driving a mower for Hubbard�s (Ace Hardware), where he works. We got in the Eagle Point Fourth of July parade, and then Southern Oregon Speedway made a mower-racing track. "There are a lot of women in the audience, so the breast cancer message really gets out." Mower racing has become a big hit at the Speedway, although other racers at first "looked down their nose at us," she says. "We were ostracized, but now they say hi and see that we�re as serious as they are. The public is really getting into watching the mower races. "When we do the figure-8 race in reverse, we�re laughing as hard as they are. The racers have a lot of camaraderie about it and we just love it." Wade and her family share two other passions: ham radio and rock hounding. They�re able to talk to family members on small ham units as they vacation around the West, and their biggest high was listening to Space Shuttle transmissions, she says. Wade�s No. 1 passion, however, is educating women about breast cancer. At Saturday�s CAP event, shower cards will be handed out that explain self-exam methods and danger signs, such as swelling, soreness, discharge or discoloration, says race director Carolyn Harris. The event is put on by the American Cancer Society and Soroptimist International and raises $3,000 to 4,000 toward free mammograms for area women. Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2000 Mail Tribune, Inc.