Spittell-Ziegelbauer shared her story on Tuesday with visitors of the Women's and Children's Center at Door County Memorial Hospital/Ministry Health Care in Sturgeon Bay.
DCMH/MHC is the newest partner for the Marti Spittell-Ziegelbauer Foundation established by her and her husband, Gary.
The organization is based on the idea that money, or the lack of money, "should not be a barrier" to health care, said Spittell-Ziegelbauer.
"Women are like that," she said. "They provide for their children, they buy food, but they don't take time to care for themselves.
"If a woman in northern Door County falls on hard times and can't afford to drive down (to access health care)," she added, "well, we want to make sure she has access to the services she needs."
The foundation makes available free reproductive screenings for women between the ages of 18 and 44. Women age 45 and older are eligible for help through Wisconsin Well Women.
The screenings include a breast exam, pelvic exam and Pap test and complete health assessment. Brochures explaining the program are available in English and in Spanish, to reflect a growing element of the Door County community.
To qualify, women must live in northeast Wisconsin, be unable to pay a deductible or co-payment or have no health insurance. Income guidelines are $15,000 for one person, $21,000 for a two-person family and $5,400 for each additional member of the family.
Spittell-Ziegelbauer was working as a television reporter in Green Bay when she was diagnosed in 1998 with what she called "late-stage, invasive, aggressive cervical cancer." She was treated at Mayo Clinic in Minnesota.
"I was too busy with my career to worry about my health," she said, "and I came down with a cancer that could have killed me at 38. I was single, never had kids."
Two years later, she married Gary Ziegelbauer, a Green Bay businessman, and he helped make her dream a reality.
The dream, Spittell-Ziegelbauer explained, was to create a foundation and build awareness among women about the need for early detection.
Spittell-Ziegelbauer's personal donations to the foundation are bolstered by events and programs.
Art Spectacular, a show and sale, helps support programs and services in Green Bay. "No Woman Left Behind" is a formal dinner that raises funds to support programs in the Fox River Valley.
Revenues generated for the foundation are managed by the Greater Green Bay Community Foundation.
The conduit helps ease potential hurdles for the foundation that wants to get its programs in to hospitals and clinics that may be competing interests, Spittell-Ziegelbauer said.
Spittell-Ziegelbauer had a long-term goal to forge a program that would carry its influence to the same area that once defined her television market.
From the center at Green Bay, the goal was to spread the word to all of northeast Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.
But after an article in the New York Times and an appearance on television's Today Show, her message has gone well beyond the limits of Wisconsin.
"Awareness is so important," Spittell-Ziegelbauer said. "Women should not live in fear; they should live their lives with knowledge."
One gauge of the impact of the program, Spittell-Ziegelbauer said, can be found at the Fox Valley Clinic.
In the three years, the foundation has provided services to 800 women, of whom 100 needed — and received via the foundation — additional testing or services.
