CLENDENIN, W.Va. --  Stephanie Yanish had put off getting a mammogram for several months -- until Thursday, when "Bonnie's Bus" pulled into the parking lot in front of her office at the Clendenin Health Center.

"I had no excuse, with them right outside," said Yanish, a medical assistant at the Kanawha County health center.

Bonnie's Bus, a 40-foot truck outfitted with a portable mammogram machine, travels the state bringing cancer-screening services to women in counties that either have a higher-than-average rate of deaths from breast cancer or don't have a mammogram machine.

On Thursday, a three-member team with the Bonnie Wells Wilson Mobile Mammography Program set up the portable clinic in the parking lot of the Clendenin Health Center and screened about 16 women through the day.

Yanish underwent her first mammogram in the bus, outfitted with pink sofas and cream-colored walls. She's still in her 30s, but her doctor recommended she get screened because of a history of the disease in her family.

"Early detection saves lives," said Stephenie Kennedy, assistant director for cancer prevention and control at West Virginia University's Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center.

Women usually spend a lot of time caring for other people, and not themselves, Kennedy said. The idea behind the clinic is bring the service to them, make it convenient and work around their schedule, she said.

Mammograms and physical breast exams are the best ways for early detection, she said.

Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related death in women 25 to 44 years old, Kennedy said. Mammography screening can reduce death rates by up to 25 percent in women 40 years old and older, she said.

 The clinic follows the American Cancer Society's recommendation that women 40 years old or older get screened regularly based on recommendations from their physician, and women 50 and above get screened once a year, she said.

The clinic's three-member team has traveled more than 15,000 miles across the state and has screened more than 600 women for signs of breast cancer since it began in April 2009 from a $2.5 million donation from Jo and Ben Statler, in honor of Jo Statler's mother, Bonnie Wells Wilson, who died of breast cancer.

It's hard for some women to leave work or their family, and some have limited access to transportation, Kennedy said.

"This way," she said, "we come to them."

The mobile unit works with community health clinics to coordinate their visits, and also link patients to health-care providers to schedule future screening or for follow-up care, she said.

Bonnie's Bus is solely a screening service. If an abnormality is detected, the staff works to connect the patient with health-care providers for a diagnostic mammogram, a biopsy or any follow-up care, she said.

Since its start, the mobile unit has visited Boone, Braxton, Brooke, Doddridge, Gilmer, Harrison, Kanawha, McDowell, Mercer, Mingo, Monongalia, Morgan, Pleasants, Preston, Randolph, Richie, Taylor, Tucker, Wetzel and Wirt counties.

The mortality rates in counties vary from year to year, Kennedy said.

Taylor, Wayne, Mingo, Logan and McDowell counties had the highest death rates for breast cancer, ranging from about 31.8 to 44.7 percent per 100,000 people, according to 2006 data from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The program charges a patient's insurance for the screening, but also provides free exams for patients who don't have health insurance, Kennedy said.

"We don't turn anyone away because of a lack of payment," Kennedy said.

The team will set up the mobile clinic on Aug. 25 in Cabin Creek, Sept. 15 in Sissonville and Oct. 28 in Clendenin.

For more information about Bonnie's Bus, call 304-598-4137 or visit www.hsc.wvu.edu/mbrcc/bonnie.

Reach Veronica Nett at veroni...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-5113.