Before UF and Florida International University face off on the football field Saturday, the schools are teaming up to inform fans about breast cancer.
Students from UF’s College of Medicine will educate fans about breast cancer prevention and awareness from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday in the FanFest area south of the O’Connell Center.
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a UF graduate, will attend the event.
Schultz is a breast cancer survivor and a supporter of university research and philanthropy.
“I am thrilled to be raising awareness and increasing education about breast cancer with my alma mater,” she said. “The phenomenal work The Gator Nation is doing to shed light on breast cancer has not gone unnoticed.”
UF spokeswoman Janine Sikes, said the ideal time for this event would have been October, during National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, but the two schools wanted to work together on the project.
Breast cancer is the second deadliest cancer among women and is expected to kill more than 40,000 women in 2009, according to the American Cancer Society.
The event will also feature the Gator Mobile Health Clinic, one of UF’s newest community outreach programs.
The clinic will offer tours of its bus, which will hit the road in January to provide health screenings for underserved populations of Alachua County and offer information on disease prevention, according to a mission statement provided by the UF College of Medicine.
