MAKING MAMMOGRAMS ACCESSIBLE TO THE MASSES

Meet Daily Point of Light Award honoree Sheri Mathis. Sheri was recognized as a 2024 Women of Worth honoree by L’Oréal Paris. These nonprofit leaders each receive $25,000 to support their cause, mentorship from the L’Oréal Paris network and a national platform to tell their stories. Nominations for 2025 are now open through March 8, 2025. Nominate an inspirational leader today!

As a two-time breast cancer survivor, Sheri Mathis knows how scary the diagnosis can be. That’s why the Mammogram Poster Girls founder keeps her personal phone number on the organization’s website for other women to call when they receive the same terrifying diagnosis that she did.

Shortly after receiving her own diagnosis in 2007, Sheri started to raise money to help other women. Wanting to take her mission a step further, she founded the Mammogram Poster Girls, an organization that raises money and awareness for women of limited means to benefit from early screening for breast cancer. The group’s first fundraiser, a “Sweetheart Supper,” was planned in just six weeks, but the response from the public was overwhelming. The event served as a turning point for Sheri, empowering her to establish the MPG as an official organization.

In their first year of existence, the MPG funded around 100 mammograms. Sheri’s goal was to double that number the following year. In 2024 they funded about 500 screening and diagnostic mammograms. To date, MPG has provided 2,000 screening and diagnostic mammograms free of charge. Mammograms saved Sheri’s life, and now she’s making sure they’ll do the same for other women.

This past year, Sheri was celebrated as a L’Oreal Women of Worth honoree for her tremendous work uplifting her community through service. Her devotion to the cause and willingness to help others navigate a journey that at times feels insurmountable is an incredible example of the power of volunteering.

What inspired you to get started with this initiative?

I am a two-time breast cancer survivor, and all of my sisters have had breast cancer. Mammograms were how we all found it. I looked around in the room while I was in treatment, and half of the women were uninsured and had not gotten their mammograms until it was very late in the game, and it just broke me. In 2018 I took our seed of an idea for the Mammogram Poster Girls and began the 501(c)(3) process with a small group of co-founders, my husband and three good friends who supported the idea. We hit the ground running.

Tell us about your volunteer role with the Mammogram Poster Girls.

Our focus has always been the early detection of breast cancer. We raise money for mammograms and provide programs to fund mammograms for under and uninsured women throughout the North Texas area. I am the founder and president of the board, and we’re an all-volunteer organization. Everything we do, we are ‘all hands on deck.’ We have our monthly program called Two-Fer Tuesday, where you can get a mammogram and a free meal. I go and meet the bus or pick up meals from our partnering restaurant. I drive them to the bus where we take it, which is in a southern sector that’s underserved in Dallas, and I get it all set up. I do everything from that monthly program to helping with our events to being the face of the organization to being the one who asks people for their support.

What are your long-term plans or goals for the organization?

We have always grown somewhat organically. We started in the southern sector of Dallas, which is more likely to have women of color who are more likely to be diagnosed at a late stage and die of breast cancer. Slowly we have grown so that now we cover most of the Dallas-Fort Worth area, and then down to Waco. We’re in talks with imaging centers in Texas and other states to try and work out something so that we can grow the program to cover even more mammograms for under- and uninsured women.

What’s been the most rewarding part of your work?

About a year and a half ago, I was at a style show for survivors, with maybe a dozen others who were in the show. At the end of the show, they handed us the microphone and asked us to tell our stories. I said ‘I’m Sheri Mathis. I’m a two-time breast cancer survivor, and I founded the Mammogram Poster Girls,’ and the woman beside me gasped. When I was done, I handed her the microphone, and she turned to me and said, ‘You are the reason I am here.’ She had insurance, but if she needed a follow-up, she couldn’t afford the copay. We had covered her for three years, and she was diagnosed in the fourth year, so we had provided her mammograms and her diagnostic stuff for all that time. She was diagnosed, and she is still here and thriving because of what we do. She now serves on my advisory board. I got to see our mission in action with a successful result. That’s what keeps me going.

What have you learned through your experiences as a volunteer?

What I have learned is that everyone, bar none, has someone in their family and their friend group who has had breast cancer. Everyone has a story and a tie-in to what we do. I don’t want to use the word sale, but it makes our work an easy ‘sale’ because it’s so relatable to everyone.

Why is it important for others to get involved with causes they care about?

A friend of mine who runs a different kind of nonprofit said, ‘If you see a problem, get off your bum and do something. We’re the only ones who can.’ I use that all the time, because you can look over your shoulder or to your left or right, but if you don’t do it, who else is going to do it?

Any advice for people who want to start volunteering?

I think to look at what drives you. In my case, it’s breast cancer and eradicating and making sure that people survive it. It might be that you have an interest in children. You look at what you’re interested in, and then you go from there. It’s easy to find avenues to volunteer because we’re everywhere and doing all kinds of different things. In schools, in your churches, in your community, in your neighborhood, you can even go through your city council person. There’s always an opportunity to help.

What do you want people to learn from your story?

If you see a problem and see something that you’re passionate about, do something about it. It doesn’t have to be forming a full-on organization. It could be joining someone else’s or volunteering at your kids’ school, for that matter. Do something for someone else, because the gift gives back to you as well as to them.

Do you want to make a difference in your community like Sheri? Find local volunteer opportunities.