Breast cancer walk memorializes Elmont health activist Elsy Mecklembourg-Guibert
More than 100 neighbors from Elmont, Valley Stream and the surrounding areas donned pink and participated in the third annual Dr. Elsy Mecklembourg-Guibert Memorial Breast Cancer Walk at Arthur J. Hendrickson Park on Oct. 5.
Mecklembourg-Guibert was a member of the Elmont education board and a local public health activist. She died at age 68 in October 2022 of the rare degenerative Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease.
The disease affects the brain, causing dementia and other problems according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In recent years, roughly 500 to 600 cases have been reported annually in the United States. There is no therapy that will slow or stop the progression of the disease currently.
Born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Mecklembourg-Guibert was the first Haitian-American elected official in Nassau County when she joined the Elmont education board in 2005.
She founded a nonprofit organization EMG Health Communications in 1997 that helped people access proper healthcare. This organization hosted a breast cancer awareness event every October focused on early prevention.
The memorial walk continues the mission of that event, fostering conversations around breast cancer screenings, mammograms, and making sure that women have access to these methods of early prevention.
