In collaboration with community partners, UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center hosted an all-day mobile screening mammography event in North Highlands on Saturday, March 25.

The event, held onsite at the Elica Health Center, provided mobile mammography in the parking lot. Most patients were uninsured women aged 40 and older who did not have current symptoms.

“I’m so grateful to have these programs that help poor and indigent people. They make women care about themselves because others care about them,” screening participant Juanita Wilson said.

To encourage women to be screened, the cancer center provided $10 gas cards to participants. Advanced registration was required, and all 40 screening appointments were filled.

Results from the mammograms will be provided within two weeks.

“Early detection saves lives,” Julie Dang, executive director for the cancer center’s Office of Community Outreach and Engagement (COE) explained. “We want to reduce barriers to mammography by bringing breast cancer screening services to the community.”

Other collaborators of the event included:

• Elica Health Center
• UC Davis student-run clinics: Imani Clinic and VN CARES
• La Familia Counseling Center

The free mammograms were offered for eligible, uninsured patients through California’s Every Woman Counts Program, which provides clinical breast exams, mammograms, pelvic exams, and Pap tests. to California's underserved populations.

More mobile mammography events planned

“This mobile mammography event is so important because it screens women for breast cancer who otherwise would not have the opportunity because they don’t have health insurance or they cannot afford their insurance co-pay,” said Laura Fejerman, incoming associate director of COE and co-director of the Women’s Cancer Care and Research Program (WeCARE). “UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center is looking forward to holding many more of these events.”