Sometimes, it takes someone who's been gone for a while to see that something's missing in Pittsburgh.

Martha Rial/Post-Gazette
Fran Johnson, left, is one of the original committee members for the Sister-to-Sister Seminar and Sophie Spencer is the co-chairwoman of this year's event. Mrs. Spencer first had the idea for the gathering 10 years ago.

And the something missing in Pittsburgh that Sophie Spencer saw could have fatal consequences.

It was a lack of a forum to teach African American women about the disproportionate toll that heart disease and stroke inflict on that population.

So she decided to fix it. That fix, the local American Heart Association's Sister-to-Sister Seminar, this month celebrates 10 years of getting the message out to black women that they don't have to die from these diseases.

A committee of 25 women, volunteers from all walks of life, works and plans all year long for the event, which this year will feature Angela Ford, associate director of the Center for Minority Health at the University of Pittsburgh's Graduate School for Public Health, as the keynote speaker.

According to age-adjusted figures from the Allegheny County Health Department, 262.1 black women out of every 100,000 died of heart disease in 2003, compared with 203.8 white women out of every 100,000. Stroke death rates for black women were 83.9 out of every 100,000, compared with 48.0 for white women. And those disparate rates are mirrored nationally, according to the American Heart Association.

In 1995, Mrs. Spencer, who grew up in Coraopolis, moved back there from New York City -- after 29 years there working in public relations and theatrical publicity -- to care for her elderly parents.

She was working with the association's local chapter as senior division director of the women's health task force. Part of her job included doing blood pressure screenings in black neighborhoods.

"I would go out to do [these] screenings in the community and I would see rates that were sky high. And I saw that there was a need for education," said Mrs. Spencer, now a customer service representative for Verizon.

New York, a city with more public health issues and a more diverse population, provides plenty of forums, classes and other opportunities for women of all races to learn about health issues.

"When I came here, I wasn't finding that," she said.

Her years in the fields of public relations and publicity kicked in.

"I came up with this idea that we'd have a grassroots organization for women from all walks of life to come together and talk about these issues."

She enlisted a retiring employee of the association, staff director Alice Pitrell, to help her organize the first conference, held in November 1995. It was attended by 65 women. So far, 600 are registered for Saturday's event.

		More info Sister-to-Sister: Take Wellness to Heart will be held Saturday at the Westin Convention Center, downtown, from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Advance registration is required and the deadline is tomorrow by 5 p.m. Cost, $20. To register or for more information call 412-824-3122, extension 6202. The seminar will include breakfast, lunch and will feature health screenings, keynote speaker, workshops on nutrition for diabetics, reducing the need for cardiac surgery and more. There also will be African-American gift vendors.

For Mrs. Spencer it was a natural, too, to focus on black women. Her own diagnosis with cardiovascular disease had been overwhelming.

"I thought if it was too much for me to understand, I figured it was a lot for other African-American women to understand."

In Sister-to-Sister's 10 years, it has evolved from a small gathering to a day of networking with speakers and specific workshops on topics such as diabetes management, meditation for stress reduction and the relationship between oral health and overall health.

And though it is specifically geared to black women, it is part of a larger gospel women need to hear: That they need to take better care of themselves. In fact, Sister-to-Sister is part of the heart association's national program called Go Red for Women, which encourages all women to make heart health a priority. Magee-Women's Hospital is the local sponsor of the program, which will offer opportunities for women's health education and awareness year-round

For Mrs. Spencer, an eye-opening event on her 55th birthday drove that point home.

After dinner out to celebrate her birthday, she woke up in the middle of the night, unable to breathe. A gurgling sound in her chest told her she had congestive heart failure and her husband called 911.

"While I was lying on the gurney in the ER feeling sorry for myself, thinking 'Oh my God, I have congestive heart failure at 55, a 64-year-old white lady came in," Mrs. Spencer recalled.

"She had been having chest pains for two weeks but ignored them because she was caring for her husband, who was recovering from foot surgery.

"She was having a heart attack! I thought 'My God! What we don't do for ourselves!"

Today, Mrs. Spencer takes a diuretic and blood pressure medication, and, in September, celebrated her 60th birthday.

Sister-to-Sister has educated some 10,000 women over the years through the efforts of a small group of women, many of whom have been participating from the beginning.

Among them is Fran Johnson, 71, of Robinson. Mrs. Johnson, a nurse practitioner who still works a few days each month, is among them.

Early in her career, she did ob-gyn work at Hill House, a social services agency in the Hill District. In that environment, she saw the challenges black women, particularly lower-income black women, face every day.

So for her, the best part of the conference is what happens afterward.

"The awesome thing about it is the women who attend our conference tend to pass that information on to others, and that's exactly what we need.

"That's our goal: To get that information out there."

A highlight of this year's seminar will be the presentation of the annual Sister-to-Sister Award, which recognizes a local woman's contributions to advancing the health of African-American women. This year's award recipient is Monretta Aarons, whose nursing career in Pittsburgh has spanned 40 years.

Most of that was spent in nursing home care and nursing education, as an academic and clinical instructor.

The Sister-to-Sister committee includes Ms. Aarons, Rosalie Augustus, Alberta Bey, Lynette Clark, Sheila Fauntleroy, Kay Fitts, Renee Frazier, Charmayne Gather, Ebony Hughes, Phyllis Jackson, Thelma Jackson, Fran Johnson, Audrey Jones, Lillie Lesesne, Luevonue Lincoln, Veronica Lucious, Gwendolyn Moore, Diane Myers, Pastor Rose Nance, Evelyn P. Parker, Carolyn Ramsey, Sharon Sales, Shirley P. Smith and Signora Watson.