COLUMBIA, S.C. -- South Carolina is setting aside $2 million to more than double the number of low-income women who receive breast and cervical cancer screening, state officials said Tuesday.

One of those women is Diane Williams of Georgetown, who hasn't had a Pap smear in six years because she doesn't have health insurance.

"I might look healthy, but I don't know if I am healthy or not," said Williams, 46. "I have not had a chance to be screened."

The $2 million approved this year by state lawmakers will allow cancer exams for an additional 9,000 women and extend the program to women as young as 40. Currently, only women age 47 or older could get the free tests. Williams would be eligible for a Pap smear when the expanded program starts in September.

The program, dubbed the Best Chance Network, has been funded with just federal money over the past 17 years, reaching about 8,000 people, or 10 percent of eligible women.

The Department of Health and Environmental Control announced the new effort Tuesday.

State health officials estimate nearly 40,000 women who would be eligible for the program have never or rarely been tested for cancer. They say it will save money in the long run because more cancers will be caught earlier.

Breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer in women in South Carolina, killing nearly 1,000 people per year. But doctors say breast cancer has one of the highest survival rates, especially if it is caught early.

"I am grateful so many women will now have a chance to live," Williams said.

One of those women saved by the program is Cathlean Kelly from McCormick, who has survived nearly six years since her breast cancer was detected with a free mammogram from the Best Chance Network.

Kelly didn't have insurance and couldn't have paid for the testing. "There are a lot of people just like me out there," she said. "Too many of them just fall through the cracks."