As the holiday season overflows with messages to spread the cheer and think of others, the American-Italian Cancer Foundation mammogram bus makes it easier to look out for yourself, offering breast scans free of charge on a walk-in basis to anyone that might need it. The Free Mobile Mammography Program, launched by the AICF in 1987 and running continuously ever since, involves the foundation’s bus stopping in a different location across the five boroughs every day, coordinating with local officials to get the word out to their constituents about its arrival. Today, the bus has stopped in the Upper West Side, at 230 West 72nd Street, in front of the office of State Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal.
“Any free thing is good!” says Lourdes, an Upper West Sider and cancer survivor who is getting her yearly scan with AICF for the first time. While she’s “happy to take advantage” of having no out-of-pocket costs for the test, the biggest advantage for her is logistical, as she explains that going to a center her physician might refer her to is a bit of a hassle. “Sometimes it involves a lot of transportation, buses and trains, and it’s a lot for me,” says Lourdes, who requires the help of a home health aide to get around.
Rosenthal, who has represented the district since 2006, has been partnering with AICF on this program since she’s been in office. “Having the American Italian cancer foundation bus just outside my office is a wonderful opportunity for my constituents,” she says. “We get people who come every time we offer it, which means to me that they don’t go elsewhere, so they rely on this bus and AICF.” The national average cost of a mammogram is around $400, or nearly double that if one wishes to get a state-of-the-art 3D scan, like the one offered on the AICF bus.
Just a couple of days ago, a bill co-sponsored by the assemblymember was signed into law requiring insurance companies to cover hair preservation treatments for cancer patients, the first bill of its kind to pass in the country. “When you speak to people, particularly women, undergoing chemo who lose their hair” says Rosenthal, “that is often more traumatic than the actual cancer diagnosis.”
In this stretch of Manhattan just north of Lincoln Center (or just west of Gray’s Papaya, depending on who you ask), the AICF bus turns heads, even in the midday Broadway bustle. This reporter from La Voce was stopped by a passer-by who looked it over and asked how long the bus would be parked there; we informed him that it should be here all day. “I’ve gotta go and tell my girlfriend,” he said with a sudden sense of mission.
