HAYDEN - Panhandle Health District's Gail Turley, a family planning program coordinator, was recently selected as a local Soroptimist Woman of Distinction in the field of health.

Turley was nominated for the award by the Komen Idaho staff for her tireless work to distribute Komen funds to eligible uninsured and under-insured women for mammograms and treatment for breast cancer. Komen Idaho is the state chapter of the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation, which has raised millions of dollars for research and the early detection and treatment of breast cancer.

As PHD's Family Planning program coordinator for 11 years, Turley has distributed thousands of vouchers for breast and cervical screening. In 2012 alone, she was able to give vouchers to 1,004 women in the five northern counties. From those screenings, 11 women were diagnosed with breast cancer and seven were diagnosed with cervical cancer. Turley helped those women get the treatment they needed and celebrated with many of them at the annual Race for the Cure in Coeur d'Alene.

"I meet them when they're desperate and scared," Turley said. "Then I see them at the Race for the Cure among a sisterhood of survivors, confident after treatment. That's what fills my tank."

Until Idaho's Komen chapters were combined in Boise in 2012, Gail led the Coeur d'Alene affiliate. She still volunteers for Komen events as part of her constant effort to raise Idaho's breast screening rates from the lowest in the nation.

"The success of Komen continues because of the work you do to ensure men and women have the services they need," Jodi Brawley, manager of the Susan G. Komen, Idaho Affiliate, wrote to Turley.

"You are a Woman of Distinction to us at Komen Idaho and we cannot express how grateful we are to you for all that you continue to do."

Soroptimist's other Women of Distinction for 2013 were Virginia Tinsley Johnson in arts and culture, Liz Montgomery and Cynthia Kleck in community service, Anna Marie Wilson in education, Carol Prosser in public service, Shelley Webb in the business and professional field, and Marilyn Hunt as a senior.