This weekend, 27 Kanawha County women will be given the chance to receive free mammograms and breast cancer screenings through Bonnie's Bus, a mobile mammogram unit that serves thousands of rural West Virginians each year.
The program, which works closely with the West Virginia Breast and Cervical Cancer Screening Program at West Virginia University, travels around the state and offers mammograms to women regardless of whether they have health insurance coverage. Bonnie's Bus will visit the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department, located at 108 Lee Street East in Charleston, on Thursday between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m.
"The Bonnie's Bus initiative targets women residing in counties with mortality rates exceeding the state average of 20.5 deaths per 100,000, women living predominantly in rural areas and other women who experience barriers to breast cancer screening mammography and education," said Stephenie Kennedy, director of cancer prevention and control at the Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center at WVU. "We encourage all patients to think about the importance of a healthy lifestyle, but when it comes to the prevention of breast cancer, early detection through screening mammogram has been proven to save lives."
According to the West Virginia Cancer Registry, nearly 12 percent of all cancers diagnosed in West Virginia are women's breast cancer, and breast cancer is the most common form of cancer among women in the state. One in four cancer diagnoses among women in West Virginia is breast cancer. In Kanawha County, roughly 122 people in every 100,000 are diagnosed with breast cancer each year, according to Tina Ramirez, performance management coordinator at the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department.
"I think a lot of people, at least from my experience, have never had a mammogram before, so this is a way to introduce them," she said. "It's less intimidating to a lot of people to go there and spend 15 minutes, and provides ease of access that [is] really 15 minutes, in and out, and if anything concerning turns up, they can be referred to a higher-end specialist."
There are currently 86 facilities that offer mammograms in West Virginia, the majority of which are located in the state's population centers, leaving women in many rural areas without access to mammograms, Kennedy said. Nearly one quarter of the state's 55 counties have no mammography facilities at all. In 2013, Bonnie's Bus provided mammograms in 113 screening days to 1,995 West Virginia women.
Most doctors recommend that women start to get regular breast cancer screenings after they turn 40, Ramirez said, although many women often choose to forgo screenings. According to the U.S. Census Bureau and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 139,339 West Virginia women age 40 and older have not had a mammogram in the past two years.
"The health department has so many prevention and wellness programs going on, and the clinic nurses approached us and asked us to bring the bus here," Ramirez said. "They've had several patients come through the STD or family-planning clinic and had requested mammograms, and this is a way for us to offer those to our patients.
"It helps us get out their into the community and let them know the health department isn't just for flu shots or vaccinations," she said.
There are 27 appointment slots for the bus, Ramirez said, and all that is needed for an appointment is a doctor's order, although those who do not have a physician or are otherwise unable to get an order should call the health department. To schedule an appointment, call the health department at 304-348-6493.
Reach Lydia Nuzum at lydia.nuzum@wvgazette.com, 304-348-5189 or follow @lydianuzum on Twitter.