Bonnie’s Bus to offer mammograms in Buckeye and Webster Springs

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Bonnie’s Bus, a digital mammography center on wheels, will visit Pocahontas and Webster counties, offering digital mammograms and breast care education to women.

A service of WVU Healthcare and the Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center, Bonnie’s Bus will be at:
•    Pocahontas Memorial Hospital from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on July 24 and 25.  For an appointment in Buckeye call 304-799-4154.
•    Webster County Memorial Hospital from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on July 26.  For an appointment in Webster Springs call 304-847-5682.

The mammograms are billed to private insurance, Medicaid or Medicare if available. Mammograms for women who do not have insurance will be covered by the West Virginia Breast and Cervical Cancer Screening Program (WVBCCSP) or through special grant funds. No woman over 40 is turned away due to lack of funding.  A physician’s order is needed for a mammogram.

Since the startup of the mobile mammography program in 2009, Bonnie’s Bus has travelled more than 40,000 miles and provided more than 3,000 mammograms.  More than half of those were screened in 2011.  Many of those screened are uninsured or underinsured and qualified for screening through the WVBCCSP.

Bonnie’s Bus works in collaboration with a statewide partnership of clinicians, public health professionals, women’s groups, and other community leaders working to help reduce the number of deaths from breast cancer in West Virginia.  

Made possible by a generous gift from West Virginia natives Jo and Ben Statler to the Cancer Center, Bonnie’s Bus is operated in partnership with WVU Hospitals. The bus is named after Jo Statler’s late mother, Bonnie Wells Wilson.

For information on Bonnie’s Bus, see www.wvucancer.org/bonnie.    

Attention reporters and editors: If you are interested in covering Bonnie’s Bus when it visits your area, please call the HSC News Service in Morgantown at 304-293-7087 in advance. Out of respect for patient privacy, please do not show up at the location without scheduling an appropriate time for interviews and/or photos.