Maureen's Mission
Bill Thiel is on a mission. His mission is twofold. He wants to educate women about the standard of care for the detection of breast lumps. He also wants to better the system in order to save women's lives.
Through Bill's own personal experience with his late wife Maureen, he has identified two critical areas where systematic change and increased education are desperately needed:
- A Universal Standard of Care for the diagnosis, treatment and follow-up of breast lumps must be established.
- Women must be given the legal right to demand a biopsy.
The current problem with the standard of care is that it is anything but standard. The standard varies in all areas and doctors are not even legally required to follow that particular standard.
Women also must have the right to insist that a biopsy be done if they so choose. Bill has been working with both state and federal legislators to pass a law that will give women the legal right to demand a biopsy of a breast lump and that will educate women about their legal rights through a government-funded public relations initiative.
Bill's ultimate goal is saving women's lives. Establishing a Universal Standard of Care for breast lumps and granting women the right to demand a biopsy may save hundreds, even thousands of lives each year in the United States. The horrible truth is that, even as you are reading this, somewhere a woman is being sent home with a lump in her breast. She is being told what Bill's wife Maureen was told: "Don't worry. It's not cancer. Come back in a year for your annual mammogram."