Mercy Springfield offers the only mobile mammography unit in the area, but the vehicle that houses it has seen better days. A fundraising effort for a new bus just wrapped up.
When the executive director of Mercy Health Foundation Springfield was approached about a need to replace the healthcare system’s mobile mammography unit, Alyea Alldredge and her team got to work.
Alldredge was told a new unit was going to cost around $1.2 million.
Now, the money has been raised, and a new bus will soon be on the roads in Springfield and the surrounding area, headed to places where the need for its service is significant.
The lead gift came from Wilson Logistics. An annual fundraiser in early November, the Colors of Hope Gala, grossed around $575,000. And a group at Mercy – Women with a Mission – comprised of Mercy employees and members of the community, gave $25,000.
Alldredge said it’s definitely time to replace the current bus.
"The old bus was kind of on its last leg or final wheel, if you will, but it had over 200,000 miles on it. It had been on the road for 12 years," she said. "It was kind of in the shop or broken down more than it was being able to be used."
The bus goes to around 17 communities in southwest Missouri, and 20 area employers currently host the bus to serve their employees, according to Alldredge.
She called the bus a lifesaving resource that reaches people who otherwise wouldn’t have access to the preventative care.
"So just a great resource for women and men who can't make it all the way to Springfield," she said. "I mean, it goes 100 miles east and west on I-44."
Mercy partners with the Breast Cancer Foundation of the Ozarks and Show Me Healthy Women to help those who can’t afford mammography services.
Alldredge said, since 2001, there have been 50,000 mammograms on the bus. And 19 cancers were identified from January 2021 to June of 2022, according to Mercy.
Annual screening mammograms are recommended for women age 40 and older, said Mercy.
The new bus will be pink. It’s expected to arrive in Springfield from Ohio, where it's being built, sometime over the next year.