By Stephen Smoot
One of the major challenges of rural health care lies in barriers to access. For a long time, overcoming those meant finding ways to get the patients from home to health care.
In recent years, that dynamic has reversed. Increasingly health care, within reasonable limits, can come as close as possible to one’s home. For example, Potomac Highlands Guild has started offering virtual mental health services from mobile units
WVU Medicine has also pioneered bringing health care services on mobile physical platforms, like the LUCAS lung cancer screening facility and Bonnie’s Bus, equipped with breast cancer screening equipment. A bus calendar for both Bonnie’s Bus and LUCAS is offered. Scheduling is already set through the end of 2026. Screening appointments need to be scheduled a month in advance.
In 2026, Bonnie’s Bus will run to Parsons on March 24 and 25, then again on June 23 and 24, St. George on March 26, Thomas on April 29, Harman on June 12, Moorefield on July 22 and again on Oct. 22, Harman on Oct. 23, and Petersburg on Nov. 4.
LUCAS will provide services in Franklin at Pendleton Community Care on Dec. 2 and 3 this year. In 2026, services will be provided in Thomas on April 23, Parsons on April 24, Franklin on June 4 and 5 and again on Dec. 2 and 3, and Petersburg on June 6 and 7.
The story of Bonnie’s Bus opens with that of Bonnie Wells Wilson. Her story, unfortunately, is shared by all too many men and women alike in different areas of West Virginia. Often, enjoying the benefits of a rural lifestyle comes with the sacrifice of long distances to needed services.
Because Wilson had difficulty in accessing preventative screenings that could have diagnosed her in time, she passed from breast cancer. Her daughter, Jo Statler, and son-in-law, Ben, worked to make sure that Bonnie Wells’ story would not be repeated as often going forward.
In 2009, the Statler family donated funds to establish Bonnie’s Bus. As WVU Medicine shared online, “The bus provides mammograms to individuals who fall within screening guidelines in a comfortable, convenient environment.” Those with private insurance, Medicaid, or Medicare can access screening.
So too can those who participate in the West Virginia Breast and Cervical Cancer screening program. This program, operated by the West Virginia Department of Health, “helps low-income, uninsured or underinsured women gain access to breast and cervical cancer screening services.”
“Uninsured patients who are age 40 and older can receive a screening mammogram on the bus through the generosity of grant funding and donations,” stated the WVU Medicine website on the mobile facility.
Said Hannah Hazard-Jenkins, M.D., director of the WVU Cancer Institute, Jean and Laurence DeLynn chair of Oncology, and associate professor of surgery at the WVU School of Medicine, at a recent Bonnie’s Bus fundraising event, “I have the distinct honor of witnessing the tremendous work of Bonnie’s Bus from two vantage points — as the director of the WVU Cancer Institute, I see the profound impact Bonnie’s Bus has on raising awareness, educating about early detection, and meeting our goal of providing lifesaving care to some of the more remote places in our state.
“But additionally, I am witness to the lifesaving work of Bonnie’s Bus as I treat women who have been diagnosed as a result of screening mammograms done on the unit.”
In 17 years of operation, Bonnie’s Bus has provided more than 33,000 screenings and diagnosed approximately 200 cases of cancer. As in most cancers, early detection serves as the most important factor in overcoming the disease and recovering.
Bonnie’s Bus staff work to get the facility on the road regularly to visit remote and rural areas of the state with underserved populations. In 2024, it traveled 26,420 miles to 46 counties, screened 4,404 patients, and provided approximately $48,000 in mammograms and also LUCAS lung screenings.
Plans are also underway to launch Bonnie’s Bus Two to cover more communities and needs, hopefully next year.
