Like a doctor’s office on wheels, new hope for breast cancer survival is rolling into more Broward neighborhoods that lack health care services.
The Community Foundation of Broward has partnered with Memorial Healthcare System to support free breast cancer screenings provided in a “mobile primary care center” – able to drive into underserved neighborhoods and provide curbside, life-saving care.
Too many Broward residents face obstacles to healthier living, due to poverty, discrimination and other systemic hurdles that make life expectancy in Broward differ, zip code to zip code. Limited access to health care makes battling cancer even more difficult. Nationwide, Black women are 40% more likely to die of breast cancer than white women, according to the American Cancer Society. It’s a problem made worse by the health and economic stresses of the pandemic.
Deploying mobile health care units is an innovative way to help overcome health inequities and bring critical health care services where they are needed most.
Thanks to a Community Foundation grant dedicated to improving breast cancer screenings for minority women, the Memorial Primary Care mobile unit is providing free mammograms in underserved South Broward neighborhoods.
The free breast cancer screenings are available to uninsured and underinsured residents in: Dania Beach, Hallandale Beach, Hollywood, Liberia, Miramar, Pembroke Park, Pembroke Pines and West Park.
Earlier diagnosis of breast cancer leads to earlier treatment that can save lives.
“We are so thrilled,” Community Foundation Board Member Alice Lucia Jackson said about partnering with Memorial for this life-saving effort. “Having a mobile unit go out to the neighborhoods with the greatest needs and the people with the greatest needs and be able to give mammograms right on the spot.”
EXCITING UPDATE! Midway through October, more than 40 women who live in Broward neighborhoods with limited health care access have received free breast cancer screenings provided by Memorial Healthcare System's "mobile primary car center." And thanks to these mobile screenings, two women are receiving treatment for cancer that otherwise may have gone undetected.
Click here to download a calendar that shows where mobile care center will be providing free breast cancer screenings.
To schedule an appointment for a free breast cancer screening, call 954-265-5977.
Our Fundholders Make It All Possible
The Community Foundation is able to support critical programs like the mobile health center thanks to visionary local philanthropists who step up for the community they love. By establishing an endowed charitable Fund at the Community Foundation, these BOLD leaders fuel life-saving solutions today – and for generations to come.
The Community Foundation grant for the free breast cancer screenings is made possible by support from the Mary and Alex Mackenzie Community Impact Fund and the Mary N. Porter Cancer Research Fund.
Mary Mackenzie and Mary Porter are two of our Community Builders – BOLD leaders who establish endowed Funds of $1 million or more at the Community Foundation. Support from their endowed Funds makes life better for people in neighborhoods all across Broward. We are proud to be their philanthropy partner and to carry on their legacies of shaping a brighter future for Broward.
To learn how you can make a BOLD impact with an endowed charitable Fund at the Community Foundation, contact Vice President of Philanthropic Services Nancy Thies at nthies@cfbroward.org or 954-761-9503.
