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15 Minutes that Matter
Van brings critical breast health screenings to your area neighborhoods.
Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women in the U.S. besides skin cancers. Breast Cancer accounts for about one in three new cancers in women each year.
The Sarah Bush Lincoln mobile mammography van makes mammograms easily accessible to women in the region. This is important because the average risk for a woman to develop breast cancer sometime in her life is about 13 percent in the U.S. This means about one in eight women will develop breast cancer in her lifetime. However, each woman’s risk of breast cancer varies based on her age, race and ethnicity and family history.
“We want to meet women where they are and make it easier for them to get a mammogram done,” Whitney Evans, SBL mobile mammography coordinator, said. “A lot of women tell us they wouldn’t have gotten a mammogram done if we hadn’t gone to them.”
“If a woman is working or if she is taking care of her family, then it can be hard to find time to get a mammogram done,” mammography technical specialist Ashley Daniels added. If we can save women some time to get this critical screening done, then that’s what we’re going to do.”
Each month, the van visits between 10 and 20 locations (such as SBL clinics or local businesses), stretching from as north as Champaign, as west as Shelbyville, as east as Paris and as south as Mt. Vernon.
“The van has become a mainstay in these communities,” Evans explained. “We get calls asking when we will be in various towns.”
The van houses the same technology as SBL’s fixed sites in Mattoon and Effingham, so patients undergoing mammograms on the van get the same quality results. The van is staffed by the same technologists who women see on the main campus. It takes about 15 minutes from start to finish to have a mammogram.
“Whether you are 35, 60 or 90 years old, a mammogram offers a relatively quick diagnosis to either give you that first step toward treatment or peace of mind,” Evans added. “Those 15 minutes are so important, so we make the process as comforting as possible.”
The SBL Mobile Mammography van is the only one of its kind in Illinois outside of Chicago. Sarah Bush Lincoln has offered a mobile mammography service for approximately 25 years.
Schedule a Mammogram: 217-258-2588