Autauga County couple turns school bus into pink cancer awareness RV
Thomas Fritz bought a school bus for Jodie after her stage 4 diagnosis, turning the pink RV into a 31-day Breast Cancer Awareness Month road trip.
Thomas Fritz bought a school bus in June and started turning it into an RV-style ride for his wife, Jodie “JoJo” Fritz, after her terminal stage 4 breast cancer diagnosis changed the couple’s plans for retirement, travel and time together.
The Autauga County couple now calls the project the Where’s JoJo Pink Bus Journey. What began as talk of buying an RV and heading for the Florida Keys has become a 31-day trip in October, during Breast Cancer Awareness Month, with stops planned across Alabama, Georgia and Florida for breast cancer walks, 5Ks and other cancer-related events.
Jodie Fritz was 48 when she was diagnosed in early June 2025, on the couple’s 10th wedding anniversary. She said pain and a lump under her arm led to a biopsy and more testing, including a PET scan. She said she had been getting yearly mammograms, but dense breast tissue and delays made it harder to grasp how serious the lump had become.
That experience is driving the public message behind the bus. Jodie Fritz is urging women not to wait between screenings and not to assume a longer gap is safe. Cancer is the second leading cause of death in Alabama, behind heart disease, and breast, colorectal, lung and prostate cancers make up more than half of new cancer cases in the state, the Alabama Department of Public Health says.
For women who need help getting screened, the Alabama Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program offers free breast and cervical cancer screenings for eligible Alabama residents ages 40 to 64 who are uninsured and meet income limits. The program includes pelvic exams, Pap smears, clinical breast exams, mammograms and, when needed, diagnostic services such as ultrasound, colposcopy or biopsy.
Joy to Life Foundation, created in 2001 by Joy and Dickie Blondheim, helps fund ABCCEDP for women ages 40 to 49. The foundation has helped provide more than 100,000 mammograms since 2008 and has raised and spent about $10 million since it began.
State Cancer Profiles puts Alabama’s female breast-cancer incidence rate at 127.9 per 100,000, compared with 131.3 nationally.
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