Dan Hoskins, director of the Cancer Prevention and Control Access Network Program, cuts the ribbon, dedicating the Mobile Health Unit. Assisting him is U.S. Senator Ernest F. Hollings. The ribbon-cutting ceremony was held Feb. 15.

A 40-foot Mobile Health Unit, will soon be traveling throughout coastal South Carolina to offer cancer screening, cancer prevention and general health education, and counseling to the medically underserved.

“We anticipate serving 500 individuals per month,” said Daniel Nixon, M.D., associate director for prevention and control at the Hollings Cancer Center.

“By offering screening and prevention services to individuals who would ordinarily not be able to avail themselves of such services, we feel we will make a real difference in future cancer rates in the state.

“Through the education function, we hope to be able to prevent many cancers, and through the screening function, we hope to be able to detect cancers in an early and often treatable form.”

The project is sponsored by the Hollings Cancer Center in cooperation with four hub site community health centers. It will initially serve 18 counties in coastal South Carolina and later expand to cover the entire state.

Services will include screening for breast, cervical, prostate, colorectal and oral cancer. Other services to be offered will include screening for high blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes and sickle cell anemia.

While visitors wait for screening services they will receive educational material on cancer prevention and nutrition.

The staff of the four hub sites will determine where the need is greatest in that particular community. In cooperation with local churches and social service agencies they will schedule the van visits in the community.

The hub sites are Beaufort/Jasper Comprehensive Health Services Inc. in Ridgeland, Family Health Centers Inc. In Orangeburg, Health Care Partners of S.C. in Conway, and the Enterprise Community Clinic in Charleston. The counties to be served are Charleston, Beaufort, Jasper, Hampton, Colleton, Berkeley, Gerorgetown, Orangeburg, Calhoun, Horry, Marion, Bamberg, Allendale, Florence, Dillon, Dorchester, Williamsburg and Clarendon.

Services on the Mobile Health Unit are free, based on available funds, to those who are income eligible according to South Carolina poverty guidelines as used by community health centers and community action agencies. Others may use the van’s services on a sliding scale fee basis.

The project is one of the services of the Cancer Prevention and Control Access Network Program. Based at the Hollings Cancer Center, the network encompasses community-based groups throughout the state.

It is funded as part of a $4.25 million grant from the Department of Defense Office of Naval Research. “We are grateful to U.S. Senator Ernest F. Hollings, whose efforts helped secure this funding,” Nixon said.