News: Preventative Medicine
Wednesday, March 26, 2008 5:00 AM
UT Southwestern’s Moncrief Cancer Resources and Susan B. Komen for the Cure held a mobile mammogram screening at Mission Arlington. An 18-wheeler trailer housing state-of-the-art medical equipment parked in Mission Arlington’s front parking lot and provided free mammograms in late February.
Seventeen women registered for the service. In order to receive mammograms, the women had to be at least thirty-five years old and have no health insurance. Women who had not had a mammogram in at least three years were strongly encouraged to sign up.
When you are worried about making rent or wondering how you will manage to feed your children tomorrow, medical check-ups take a backseat to those difficulties. Preventative health care is simply not a concern for people who can barely afford to live day to day.
Andrea Wilson, the director of the medical clinic, hopes that the mobile mammogram screenings, along with other free medical programs, will change that. She wants more people coming to the medical clinic for annual check-ups instead of waiting until they’re already sick.
Cancer screenings should not be a luxury. Pray that Moncrief can make free mammogram screenings available at Mission Arlington in the future, and that preventative health care becomes more accessible to everyone.
Next: Reaching Out with a Frenzy (April 7)
Previous: Thrill of the Hunt (March 25)
