HIGH POINT, N.C. — A Triad woman is leading the charge toward a better way for early detection of breast cancer. 

Martha Kaley is the founder of Earlier.org, also known as Friends for an Earlier Breast Cancer Test, an initiative devoted to raising funds for research of early detection methods.

Ideally, a biological test would be available to detect cells before they form into a tumor. 

“Mammograms are the only thing that we really have that’s very good, but it’s not good enough. It can be better, and for us to just settle for something, is a very weak approach,” Kaley said. 

More than 25 years ago, Kaley went in for a mammogram, and it came out clear. It wasn’t until three months later, when her dog, Sherlock, gave her a scratch that formed into a bruise that she knew something was wrong.

She went to her doctor, and after several tests, he found a mass against her chest wall. It wasn’t detected by her recent mammogram, and by the time Kaley would’ve discovered it on her own, it would’ve been too late. 

“As much as we’re about donations, we’re about sharing this information, and getting a different concept. Rather than thinking ‘oh, just go get a mammogram,' that’s really not the point here,” Kaley said.

According to the American Cancer Society, mammograms don’t detect one in five breast cancers, leaving many people in the same situation as Kaley.

The Friends for an Earlier Breast Cancer Test wear the traditional breast cancer awareness ribbon with the points facing up, to signify early detection for a new direction. This is the only initiative in the United States committed to finding earlier detection methods. 

This October, Kaley and her team kicked off the month at Panera Bread. Twenty-five Triad locations will be donating a portion of their proceeds to Friends for an Earlier Breast Cancer Test with the purchase of a special ribbon-shaped bagel. 

Kaley and her team look forward to the day where the goal is reached to find better methods of early detection, and the organization will have fulfilled its mission.

“It will be so much easier with proceeding with treatment with breast cancer far earlier, which will reduce it from being a life-threatening disease to just a chronic annoyance," Kaley said.  

Since 1995, Earlier.org has donated more than $4.7 million dollars toward early breast cancer detection research. To learn more about the organization, click here.