Starting in July, fewer low-income women will be screened for breast and cervical cancer in the Inland Northwest and nationwide because of congressional budget cuts.

The Breast and Cervical Health Program, which will be cut by one-third in Eastern Washington, provides mammograms and Pap tests to rural and low-income women.

It received $525,000 for nine months last year and will receive $348,000 for 12 months next year.

In North Idaho, a similar program at the Panhandle Health District is expected to take cuts too.

Spokane piano teacher Victoria Nord's story shows how the program works.

When health insurance grew too expensive for Nord, a single mother, she let it lapse. Then she felt a lump in her breast.

A family friend pointed her to the local American Cancer Society, where she learned about the screening program, which is run here and in eight other counties by the Spokane Regional Health District.

The lump was cancer, diagnosed in May 2002. Nord worried she would go broke paying for treatment. But the program came through again, linking her into government health insurance.

"I was extremely blessed to have this in my life," she said of the program. "Fighting and beating the cancer was all I needed to worry about."

With chemotherapy, radiation and surgery now behind her, she worries about women who won't be helped because of the budget cuts. Additional women will not be enrolled in the program until current clients leave.

The cuts result from budget reductions for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which distributes money to states for the program.

Jan Holloway, a retired nursing professor and breast cancer survivor, called the cuts "penny wise, pound foolish."

Last month, Holloway traveled to Washington, D.C., representing the American Cancer Society, for a one-day lobbying event called One Voice Against Cancer.

"I'm perplexed they cannot see it's cost-effective to fund the prevention program," she said. "Screenings and early detection save lives."

During the past four years, 54 cancers were diagnosed through the Eastern Washington program. In 2002, the program served more than 900 low-income women through a network of health-care providers.