VBCF’s Education Manager, Erin Steigleder, has been busy planning our annual participation in two Remote Area Medical (RAM) clinics in June. RAM clinics provide free medical, dental, and vision care all over the country for people who don’t have regular access to care. Though more low-income Virginians now have medical care thanks to the Affordable Care Act and the recent state expansion of Medicaid eligibility, we still have a lot of people who are medically underserved.
The largest RAM clinic in Virginia is in Wise County, located in our state’s southwest Appalachian region. More than 200 health-focused collaborators participate at RAM Wise with hundreds of volunteers and more than 1,000 attendees. At RAM Wise, the Wise County Fairgrounds will become a makeshift medical clinic. Patients will begin to gather as early as midnight to get a ticket to receive free medical care. Ticket distribution usually begins at 3 a.m., and patients are then served in numerical order according to their ticket number when clinic doors open, which typically occurs at 6 a.m.
VBCF will be on hand to host “Becky’s Place” – a cancer education program named for the volunteer who championed this effort, Becky Morris. Becky was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1995 and immediately got involved as a community representative and advocate for breast cancer awareness. She had a recurrence of metastatic breast cancer 15 years later and passed away in December 2010.
This year, Becky’s Place at RAM Wise will be held June 28-30. VBCF works with volunteers and other cancer health education partners to share information on multiple types of cancer, and we are able to reach hundreds of people over the course of two days. Becky’s Place offers attendees and their loved ones a relief tent to get out of the sun and learn more about cancer prevention, symptoms, screening, and diagnosis resources. At the smaller clinics, including RAM Emporia on June 22-23, VBCF volunteers staff a breast cancer education table and offer one-on-one conversations with attendees.
As our healthcare system evolves, VBCF continues to adapt its programs in order to provide breast health information to underserved Virginians. RAM clinics happen in every region of Virginia, and we need your help to continue expanding and adapting our RAM programming! Donations make it possible for us to keep doing this work, so please consider making a gift to help us continue these clinics. If you want to learn more about our work with RAM or get involved, please contact erin@vbcf.org.
