Tuesday, November 11, 2025
Nassau University Medical Center recently unveiled the design for a new, state-of-the-art mobile van that would screen for breast cancer — dubbed the “MammoVan” — in recognition of Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
The advanced mobile mammography unit will be hitting the road next May, providing life-saving early detection services to thousands of women across Nassau County while ensuring accessible healthcare for underserved communities.
“Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths among females in New York state,” Meg Ryan, NUMC’s interim chief executive and president, said.
Ryan added that 16,700 females are diagnosed with breast cancer in New York annually, and Nassau County has a breast cancer rate that’s 10 percent higher than the rest of New York.
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and joining Ryan at the Oct. 23 unveiling were Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, more than 100 hospital employees and the medical center’s board members.
NUMC offers women’s health care clinics with extended hours on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, and weekend clinics, from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. on Saturdays. More than 13,000 women have visited the clinics so far this year, and more than 20,000 are expected to use these services by the end of 2024.
“Early detection is vital,” Ryan said. “Here at NUMC, we perform 6,500 mammograms annually, both on site here and in the van. Our breast imaging clinic, our oncology center, our women’s health and our radiology services are vital to our community.”
NUMC’s mobile mammography van has been in use since 2002, and the new van will greatly increase the standard of care being offered to patients, Ryan said.
“It’s going to be the best of the best in our van,” she said. “We’re getting new technology — the gold standard of technology. Right now, the van goes out twice a week, and now this new van that’s going to be delivered here in May, it’s going to be going out into communities five to six days a week.
“We’re going to see an increase annually of 40 percent more patients,” Ryan added. “That’s 40 percent more people that we can get in the van, diagnose and treat early. So that’s very important for our community.”
NUMC will hold its first-ever Pink Gala at The Lannin in Eisenhower Park on Nov. 14, starting at 6 p.m. The new van will cost around $1 million, and while the hospital has some of the funding for it already, all proceeds from the gala will contribute to its purchase.
Blakeman, whose sister is a breast cancer survivor, said he was delighted to join the hospital for the unveiling.
“I also want to express my gratitude to the doctors, nurses and staff for the incredible work you do in keeping Nassau residents healthy,” he said. “Early detection is critical — getting mammograms and screenings can make all the difference in health outcomes. This new $1 million van is an incredible investment, and I couldn’t be more excited about what it will mean for our community.”
During the unveiling, Ryan also announced that the hospital has recently partnered with the nonprofit Hair We Share, which provides human hair wigs made from donated hair, free of charge, to people struggling with medical hair loss. Hair We Share, based in Jericho and founded in 2014 by Suzanne Chimera and Dean Riskin, now has a “wig room” inside of NUMC’s oncology suite to help patients dealing with chemotherapy-related hair loss.
Chimera, a wig designer since 1994, said that human hair wigs are completely hand made, and each strand of hair is individually sewn. Wigs can cost upwards of $3,000.
Hair We Share was originally founded to help a young girl dealing with alopecia, an autoimmune disease that causes hair loss. Her family could not afford the cost of a wig, so Chimera put a post out on social media urging people to donate their hair. In three days, she received more than 42 donations.
“It just killed me a little inside to know the expense that the family is already going through,” Chimera said, “and then to add this expense on top of it.”
The nonprofit has grown steadily since 2014, and it now has a “ponytail-tracking program.” If people donate their hair, and the funds to cover the wig’s manufacturing expense, the donor will received a photo of their hair once its been made into a wig.
To learn more about Hair We Share and how to donate, visit HairWeShare.org.
Ryan said everything NUMC does is for the benefit of the community. The hospital serves all Nassau County residents, regardless of their ability to pay. “We’re trying to be more accessible,” she said, “and we’re really honing in on what our patients need and trying to respond to that.”
For more on the hospital and its women’s health care services, visit NUMC.edu.
