Coast Hills Credit Union Gives $250,000 To Mission Hope

SANTA MARIA, Calif. (KEYT) - Mission Hope Cancer Center in Santa Maria is celebrating a generous gift from a long-time community partner.

Coast Hills Credit Union awarded $250,000 to Mission Hope at a ceremony Tuesday night.

The donation will help pay for a new CT scanner.

The top-of-the-line machine is equipped with higher sensitivity and resolution, as well as some AI-assisted diagnostic features.

The overall installation project is just under 2 million dollars.

Mission Hope’s radiation oncologist Doctor Ben Wilkinson says this new machine can detect cancer at earlier stages of growth.

“Previous scanners were in the range of 8 to 10mm,” says Dr. Wilkinson. “The scanner now can enable us to detect even as small as three millimeter.”

“I’m a cancer survivor myself, says James Ledford, Coast Hills Credit Union CEO. “And to have this kind of advanced imaging locally to where people can just come here and get their treatment and stay close to family and stay close to home, that's beyond important.”

Coast Hills credit union has been a partner of Mission Hope Cancer Center for many years.

To find out more information about Mission Hope Cancer Center, you can click this link to visit their website.

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