Ruth Newman Shapiro was a vital young woman in her mid-thirties when cancer brought her life to an abrupt and tragic end.  As a result of the loss of her daughter, Ruth’s mother, Rose turned her grief into a positive action by reaching out to greater Atlantic County and in 1961 the R.N.S Cancer Memorial Fund was established.

The original mission of RNS was to provide the finest facilities and equipment for the diagnosis and treatment of cancer in the region.  However, when the need for more sophisticated facilities for the treatment of heart disease became a medical priority, RNS expanded its mission and became the Ruth Newman Shapiro Cancer and Heart Fund.

In 1991, a team from the AtlantiCare RNS Regional Cancer Center recognized the need to address the early detection of breast cancer in the women of Southeastern New Jersey and submitted a proposal to develop and design a custom mobile mammography van.  The result was the RNS Mobile Mammography Van – a 36-foot van containing a waiting area, two dressing rooms, a mammography suite, and a dark room.  It would make cancer detection equipment easily accessible to women in Atlantic, Cape May and Southern Ocean County.  The van would be one of only two such units in New Jersey.  In 1992, with the help of a generous donation in the amount of $475,000 from the RNS Caner and Heart Fund, a custom-built mobile mammography unit arrived in February 1993 and began screening women in April 1993.  In 2001 a new x-ray unit and other van upgrades were installed and the Program received the 2001 Community Outreach Honorable Member Certificate by the Health Research and Educational Trust on New Jersey which is part of the New Jersey Hospital Association.

Support from the RNS Cancer and Heart Fund, the Ladies Invitational Bluefish Tournament, the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, Central and South Jersey Affiliate, and other local charities have enabled the RNS Mammography Assistance Fund to be established.  The fund provides mammograms to uninsured women at no charge thus removing financial barriers to receiving this important and potentially life-saving screening.  Since the fund started in 1994, over 26,000 women have been screened and as of August 2006, 2,534 women have had their exam at a reduced rate or free.

In May of 2006 the RNS Cancer and Heart Fund Board of Directors generously pledged $750,000 for the acquisition of a new, state-of-the-art Mobile Mammography Van.  This new Van will be equipped with digital mammography equipment; making it one of only a handful of Vans in the entire country with this advanced technology. The FDA recently determined that for many women digital mammography is superior to the more traditional film-based mammography and allows for cancer to be detected at its earliest stage.  We are proud to support this program and look forward to reaching more women facing the barriers of receiving this important, annual screening.