The group Horses and Hope and partners are seeking funds for a 40 foot mobile cancer screening unit to travel to underserved areas of the Commonwealth.
The million dollar campaign was unveiled Tuesday. Kentucky First Lady Jane Beshear says the vehicle could accommodate seven different screenings.
"There is a new screening that they hope to be able to try with that on this van, which is a breath test for lung cancer," said Beshear. "So, it's an opportunity to do some of these preliminary kinds of screenings."
If sufficient funds are secured, the van could be used to screen for breast, lung, prostate, skin, head and neck, cervical, and colon cancers. Beshear says this type of unit would be a first for Kentucky.
"When we started talking about this, the group, our partners, wanted to do two vans," she said. "And my hope is this one van is gonna be so successful that we will have others that want to step up and fund a second van so we can make an even bigger impact across the state."
Beshear says if all goes well, the cancer screening van could be on the road by the end of this year. The mobile health care project is part of Horses and Hope, a campaign launched several years ago to increase breast cancer screening within the equine industry.?
