Shortly after Mary White went in for her annual mammogram, she knew something was amiss when her doctor said he needed to talk to her and her husband.

    It was Feb.13: the day White found out she had breast cancer.

    As she left the doctor's office at Kaiser Hospital in Riverside - carrying bags of books, videotapes and pamphlets about breast cancer - a nurse asked the 60-year-old White if she would like to talk to another woman who survived the disease.

    Days later, Sally Von Stetten called.

    Last week the two women, who now act like longtime girlfriends, sat in the living room of Von Stetten's Diamond Bar home, recounting their experiences with breast cancer, sharing information and talking about the future.

    "I appreciate the sunsets a lot more now," Von Stetten said.

    "Just the day, just getting through the day is what I appreciate," White added.

    White and Von Stetten are "breast buddies" in a program sponsored by Kaiser Permanente of California in partnership with WIN Against Breast Cancer.

    The WINN Kaiser program was one of four nationwide that recently were named by the American Association of Health Plans and The Commonwealth Fund, a health research foundation, as being the best providers of services for women with breast cancer.

    Chosen from 1,000 health plans nationwide, serving more than 140 million people, the Kaiser program and the three others were rated superior in patient satisfaction, overall effectiveness, innovation, creativity and quality.

    "From the moment of diagnosis we want the patient to be informed," said Laura Ward, the breast care coordinator at the Kaiser Hospital in Fontana. "It is only through our collaboration with WIN that we have been able to provide our patients with the information and support they need."

    WIN ABC - Woman's Information Network Against Breast Cancer serves over 20,000 men and women annually around the county. The Covina based program was founded in 1994 by Betsy Mullen, a breast cancer survivor.

    Mullen, who was diagnosed and treated at Kaiser, said when she went looking for information about the disease there was very little to be found. After her treatment, Mullen started WINN and teamed up with Kaiser.

    Along with the Breast Buddy program, there is also the Breast Aid Program - which provides books, pamphlets, videos and audio tapes to patients - and the WIN ABC Speakers Bureau.

    "Treatments have changed so much and for the better," Ward said. "Cure was not a word associated with breast cancer 15 or 20 years ago."

    Over 180,000 women a year are diagnosed with breast cancer in the United States. Of those, 40,000 die, according to Ward.

    The WINN and Kaiser programs are offered at the Fontana, Riverside and West Los Angeles hospitals, but they treat women from all over the San Gabriel Valley.

    Mullen said she is working on getting funding to expand the program to treat indigent women at four Los Angeles County hospitals, including County-USC and Harbor-UCLA medical centers.

    "It will be a two-year pilot program," Mullen said. "Then hopefully we can replicate it state and nationwide."

    WINN also wants to expand the program to include buddies for husbands and children.

    There was no WINN or breast buddies program when Von Stetten was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1994, so she went in search of information on her own.

    Von Stetten's mammograms never showed any sign of a tumor, she said, but one day she "felt something had changed" and she went to see the doctor.

    Unlike White, who walked out of her doctor's office with more books than she could carry, Von Stetten made countless calls to physicians and searched for any information she could find.

    "I fully expected to get thrown out of local bookstores where I would just sit and read," Von Stetten said. "I found people to support me. In a way I found a buddy, but it wasn't in a formal program."

    After diagnosis, both White and Von Stetten had to decide what their treatment would be.

    White, whose tumor was .3 centimeters and Von Stetten, whose tumor was four times that size, both chose to have the growths removed.

    It will take years - they will be monitored for at least six - before the chances of a reoccurrence diminish.

    "It doesn't control your lie, but it is always there," Von Stetten said. "But even when you get the smallest aches and pains, you wonder if it is back."

    White and Von Stetten say they know more about breast cancer than anything else. The two talk with ease about biopsies, reconstruction, mastectomy and other medical procedures.

    Talking about their experiences helps. Both laugh and smile, even while discussing serious surgical procedures. They said it is their positive attitudes, their families and each other that got them through breast cancer treatments.

    "If you think you are going to die from breast cancer, you are going to die," White said.

    "I agree. You have to want to be a victim," Von Stetten replied. "And personally, I don't want to be one.