To celebrate the opening of the Helmsley Cancer Center, breast cancer patient Abby Franks rang a bell that will be used by future patients completing treatment.
More than 200 onlookers shook their own tiny bells to celebrate the new possibilities having local treatment will bring. Franks, who also helped raise funds for the center, is excited.
“Care givers and their diagnosed loved ones can now have radiation care right here," Franks said. "An estimated 165,000 miles were being traveled annually – and now, no longer.”
The nearly 17,000 square foot facility will offer radiation, chemo and other oncology services. It’s the only facility like it within 100 miles.
Barbra Berg is a 73-year-old breast cancer survivor who came to celebrate the opening.
“And due to my type of cancer, what I needed was radiation – something I had to travel to Billings or Great Falls to do that, because the cancer center wasn’t here,” she says.
She’s cancer free now, but says it means a lot knowing she can get treatment closer to home and her family if it returns.
Federal health officials say rural Americans die from cancer at higher rates compared to their urban counterparts. That’s in part because of a lack of treatment. Only 5% of oncologists work in rural areas. They serve about 15% of the U.S. population.
Access to cancer treatment in rural Montana is growing. Another cancer center opened in Miles City last fall.
