An RV, painted white with large blue letters reading “Mobile Mammography,” sat outside the Union Community Health Center on 188th Street and Valentine Avenue on May 1. The truck, which is owned by St. Barnabas Hospital, travels around the Bronx to raise awareness of the need for routine breast exams, and to provide them to the uninsured.
Sister Maureen McCarthy, a nurse practitioner who performs the breast exams in the RV, says Mobile Mammography tries to “aim for the uninsured.” McCarthy added that most of her patients are immigrants.
Earlier this year, McCarthy says, because of a mammography performed in the van, a women was diagnosed with breast cancer, and began to receive emergency treatment soon after.
In addition to the “Mobile Mammography” RV, the Union Community Health Center also had a table set up as part of its “Cover the Uninsured” week. At the table, residents were given information on the early detection of several illnesses, including colon and prostate cancer.
In total, about 75 people visited the table, nine of whom received free mammography examinations.
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Welcome to the Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper that primarily serves the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights. Through our Breaking Bronx blog, we focus on news and information for those neighborhoods, but aim to cover as much Bronx-related news as possible. Founded in 1988 by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for-profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center, the Norwood News began as a monthly and grew to a bi-weekly in 1994. In September 2003 the paper expanded to cover University Heights and now covers all the neighborhoods of Community District 7. The Norwood News exists to foster communication among citizens and organizations and to be a tool for neighborhood development efforts. The Norwood News runs the Bronx Youth Journalism Heard, a journalism training program for Bronx high school students. As you navigate this website, please let us know if you discover any glitches or if you have any suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. You can send e-mails to norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org or call us anytime (718) 324-4998.