For the past few years, breast cancer advocates such as singer Melissa Etheridge, who performed at the 2005 Grammy’s after undergoing chemotherapy, have been very successful in drawing national attention to the cause.

However, the no. 1 killer of women is heart disease.

Friday is National Woman’s Heart Day and the American Heart Association is looking to shine the national spotlight on the deadly disease with a new campaign, Go Red for Women. Meanwhile, the nonprofit women’s health organization Sister to Sister is holding its fifth annual health fair at Madison Square Garden. It is offering free heart screenings to measure women’s cholesterol, blood pressure and blood glucose levels, and body mass index.

“This is an immediate emergency because heart disease is the leading killer of women,” the director of preventive cardiology at New York-Presbyterian Hospital and chief medical adviser for Sister to Sister, Dr. Lori Mosca, told The New York Sun. “There is an epidemic of undiagnosed risk factors in women. Many physicians are not communicating with women about what their numbers are that are vital so they can protect their heart,” she said.

Breast cancer research receives more federal money than research on heart disease: In his 2007 budget proposal President Bush is seeking to give $4.75 billion to the National Cancer Institute, while he is seeking only $2.9 billion for the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.

“There is no question that both diseases are significant,” a surgical oncologist on the board of directors with the American Cancer Society, Dr. Arnold Baskies, told the Sun. “It’s just that breast cancer is more difficult to treat and women go through different treatments than those with heart disease,” he said. Dr. Baskies has treated more than 5,000 breast cancer patients during 31 years of work.

“I see about 150 new breast cancers a year,” Dr. Baskies said. “With the support from the American Cancer Society, we have seen a decrease in the mortality rate. We can attribute this to the improvements in detection and in treatment. Mammography has helped us in the findings that pre-date the presence of cancer. We can give those women a pill and reduce their chances of getting breast cancer,” he said.

The treatment for heart disease has been a battle for doctors, as it is difficult to properly diagnose women who may suffer from the disease. Women typically do not experience the same symptoms as men, and they often do not get early preventive treatment.

“Women do not have the classic discomforts as men do in textbook fashion,” a cardiologist with the Mayo Clinic, Dr. Gerald Fletcher, told the Sun. “Women generally experience not feeling well, shortness of breath, and faint. We are on the cutting edge of how heart disease behaves in women,” he said.

In a recent study, heart disease specialists have discovered that a woman’s weight plays a substantial part in knowing if she is at risk for heart disease.

“We discovered that waist size was strongly associated with having major risk factors for heart disease,” Dr. Mosca said. “Women with a waist over 35 inches proved to be at risk,” she said.

Two years ago, Deborah Jackson went to a Sister to Sister health fair and discovered that she had two major risk factors for heart disease. Ms. Jackson, 50, knew her family had a history of heart disease and that it was highly likely she would have problems, but like so many she didn’t want to believe it.

“My blood pressure and cholesterol levels put my readings in a high risk category,” Ms. Jackson said. “They suggested that I go see my physician immediately.”

Ms. Jackson said she has been proactive in taking her medications and eating healthier. “I have been a little lazy with the exercise,” she said. “I am planning on taking better care of myself.”

It is estimated that 211,000 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year and 43,300 will die. One in seven women either now has or will develop breast cancer in her lifetime.

Heart disease kills nearly half a million women a year. One in four women suffer from the disease and 64% of women who died suddenly of coronary heart disease had no previous symptoms.

Friday’s fair and health screenings at Madison Square Garden are free and open to the public. It runs from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.