The American Cancer Society estimates that 39,620 women will die from breast cancer this year alone.

October is breast cancer awareness month, and people like senior associate athletic director and senior woman administrator Cindy Gannon are helping to make sure breast cancer doesn't take another life. Through Gannon's program Dig for Life she is helping to make sure all woman are not only aware of the threat they face but are armed to fight it.

With the help of Saint Francis Medical Center and Southeast Missouri State University, Gannon has helped to provide 2,000 mammograms for women in the Cape Girardeau area. These tests can help to provide early detection of breast cancer.

Q. How long have you been with Southeast?

A. I actually started with Southeast as the volleyball coach and am now in my 27th year with the university. I was the volleyball coach for 16 years, and I went into administration full time in 2006.

Q. What is Dig for Life?

A. Dig for Life is a fundraising/breast cancer awareness initiative that was started in 2001. It's a partnership that initially began with Southeast volleyball and Saint Francis Medical Center.

Now, since 2001, we have partnered with the majority of our athletic teams and Saint Francis Medical Center to provide an opportunity to raise funds towards mammograms for women in the Southeast Missouri area who couldn't afford one otherwise.

Q. Why did you start Dig for Life?

A. My mother died of breast cancer in 2000, and I wanted to do something in her honor that would in turn hopefully have the opportunity to impact other folks so they wouldn't have to experience breast cancer in their lives. We started raising money for every "dig" the volleyball team would make in the month of October.

Q. What is a dig?

A. A dig is a defensive save that applies when someone attacks the ball, and we actually end up saving it from scoring a point. Seeing how a dig is a save, that's how it all kind of fell into "saving lives, digging balls." It just came together.

We started with pledges per dig, but it's now evolved into people making flat donations. Some people still choose to pledge per dig, but now Dig for Life works with Pink Up Cape.

Q. What is Pink Up Cape?

A. It's one program that is kind of a branch off of Dig for Life that helps to bring awareness to Cape by "pinking up" the town through various businesses. The bridge will be lit up in pink, and we also do the ribbons on campus. It's just a phenomenal program--I mean there will be pink light bulbs and pink feather flags outside of businesses. I believe there are over 300 businesses that participate in all. It's amazing how pink everything in Cape will be.

Q. How does Dig for Life raise money?

A. We support the cause in creating awareness through our department that we promote during athletic nights. We have "pink up" nights through many of our sports teams. More so than us doing the fundraising, we're helping to create awareness about the program. Our student athletes help volunteer to help with pinking up Cape, including the placement of ribbons, banners and even uniforms. Our baseball team will even be riding the Pink Up Cape float for homecoming. It's really a departmental-wide effort in support of this program.

Q. How exactly was the partnership with Saint Francis started?

A. Something always has to begin with a vision, so I pitched my idea to Saint Francis's CEO and marketing director. I met with them, gave them my pitch and story. Within a week there was a huge marketing proposal. They had four or five different logos, and they actually allowed my volleyball team and I to pick the logo. The logo picked has been used since 2001. It's just been a fantastic partnership, and it's amazing the dedication that Saint Francis has had and the impact they're having on the lives of people in the Southeast region.

Q. How can students help or get involved?

A. Students can get involved by attending our events, and we encourage them to wear pink during our Pink Up Cape nights. If there are any campus organizations that would want to get involved they would simply need to either call me directly or visit DigForLife.com. Anytime you're supporting the cause it's wonderful.

Q. How has the Southeast community helped?

A. There are several events that take place throughout the year. Saint Francis has an event called Pink Up Cape Kickoff Party on Sept. 24, and there are many more events that you can see through our website.

Obviously something like this needs the support of a lot of people, and it doesn't continue to grow without a group of people who actually take hold and continually add great events and ideas -- the team at Saint Francis is just phenomenal. For me it's just exciting and refreshing to know that this is such a fantastic community that will rise to the occasion.

Q. Anything else you would like people to know?

A. For me it's a little bit overwhelming to know that somehow the memory of my mom gets to stay alive through a program like this, not for everybody, but for me it does. So when I see the bridge pink or someone making a donation, in my mind my mom's memory is able to stay alive and vivid for me and knowing that somehow her losing her life to breast cancer maybe had the opportunity to save someone else's life.