THE WOODLAND/CONROE – The Rose dedicated a recent crisp October day to introduce its new “neighbors” to the mobile unit dedicated specifically to Montgomery and surrounding counties.
Interfaith Community Clinic was the first stop as the mobile mammography equipment was easily unloaded by staff and located in space that the clinic offers on a regular basis to ensure their patients have access to quality breast health care.
Billed online as #TheRoseOnTheRoad Tour so that “followers” could join the festivities either online or in real time, stops along the way included the Greater Conroe/Lake Conroe Area Chamber of Commerce; Woodforest National Bank of Conroe and branches on Kuykendahl Rd. and Lake Robbins Drive; Lonestar Family Health Center; and iconic locales such as Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, Market Street, and The Woodlands Waterway. The Rose staff delivered appreciation and awareness gift bags to each site and “selfies” with the new mobile van and traveling awareness ribbon were encouraged.
The tour and evening reception served as a means to celebrate the launch of a fourth mobile unit – dedicated to Montgomery and surrounding counties. The new mobile unit is made possible due to the generosity of the Woodforest Charitable Foundation and from proceeds from The Rose Golf Classic.
Kim Marling, Executive Director of the Woodforest Charitable Foundation; Dorothy Gibbons, CEO and Co-Founder of The Rose; and two-time survivor Tonya Osgood whose second cancer was discovered via a mobile unit in Conroe were among those joining the awareness-building tour and speaking at the closing reception.
At the conclusion of the day of travel, theWoodforest Charitable Foundation board room was transformed into a reception area fit for a “pink premiere” complete with pink carpet, 6 ft. ribbons, the mobile mammography equipment and a slide show of the day’s activities. As part of the welcome to area stakeholders, Kim Marling noted that her gratitude for family and friends during her own breast cancer diagnosis and treatment led her to reach out The Rose to provide a unit dedicated to the area.
In presenting gifts to both Kim and Robert Marling in recognition of the Foundation’s generosity, Dorothy Gibbons shared that The Rose broke the barrier of cost when it was founded in 1986 and now, with the help of neighborhood-centric funders like Woodforest Charitable Foundation, they are battling the second deterrent keeping almost 30% of eligible Texas women from life-saving mammograms – convenience.
Tonya Osgood — with the help of husband Charles — also shared from her breast cancer journey. She was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2001 when she was 38, divorced but dating someone new, and in the Navy. The cancer was found at stage 3 and was HER2+. Two days after her combined mastectomy and reconstruction surgery, Charles got down on one knee, beside the recliner she used as a bed during recovery and proposed. Also Navy, Charles asked for and received a humanitarian transfer and was with her throughout her treatments. She says, “2001 was the worst and best year of my life.”
In 2014, now a Montgomery realtor, Tonya was sent by the Veterans Administration to The Rose, as part of their exclusive contract with the nonprofit. The mobile unit partnering with Lonestar Family Health Center in Conroe saved her the 90 minutes or more it would take her to get to one of the two facilities of The Rose. The Conroe mobile visit revealed that she had “a pea-sized cancer — this time hormonal — and in stage 1.”
Healthy once again, the frequent Avon Walk and Relay For Life participant is now an advocate for The Rose as well, concluding her remarks with what The Rose hopes will become a familiar tagline in Montgomery County, “The Rose Mobile Mammography saves time, money and lives!”
The Rose welcomes businesses and corporations to join the growing number of clients who feature the Mobile Mammography Unit during Employee Wellness programs and host a Mobile Mammography day at their workplace. To set up a site visit, please call 281.464.5136 or e-mail [email protected].
The Rose provides access to quality breast health care to women in the Houston area and 35 counties — regardless of their ability to pay. Screenings and diagnostic care by breast health specialists and a trained and compassionate staff have been offered to nearly 500,000 women since 1986 when Co-Founders Dorothy Gibbons and Dr. Dixie Melillo first started the nonprofit. With two centers and a mobile fleet, The Rose overcomes barriers of cost and convenience helping to ensure that preventive care is accessible to all.
Photos of the tour available here.
Photos of the reception hosted by Woodforest Charitable Foundation available here.
