Survivor spreads word on screening
Cancer warning for women in 40s
BREAST cancer survivor Becca White has joined a nationwide push to get screening services to promote free mammograms to women in their 40s, something she didn’t know existed.
“I had no idea that BreastScreen Queensland offered free screening to women in their 40s,” she said. “I was only diagnosed after months of pain and I sought advice from my GP and paid to have an ultrasound and mammogram.
“Women in their 40s should not put off their health checks because they’re too busy.”
At 45 she was diagnosed with breast cancer and opted to have a double mastectomy followed by radiography and chemotherapy. Further genetic testing revealed she had the CDH1 gene and a 70 per cent chance of developing stomach cancer. This year she'll have her stomach removed.
“I chose the sledgehammer approach. After what happened to my mother (also diagnosed at 45 and died at 64 after it spread to her leg) I was tired of worrying about breast cancer.”
Ms White has joined forces with Can at 40, Do at 45, a campaign spearheaded by Jodi Joyce, who survived the insidious disease in 2018.
“We want the government to invest in saving lives by promoting free mammograms from 40-50 – we just can’t have women dying from metastatic breast cancer,” she said.
Ashmore woman Julie Fels was diagnosed with cancer 16 days shy of her 42nd birthday and said she knew a lot of women who didn’t know mammograms were free from 40.
A Queensland Health spokesperson said the cancer detection rate in women aged between 50 and 74 years was 59 per 10,000 women screened, compared with 33 per 10,000 women screened aged between 40 and 49.
“In 2019, 137 women aged between 40-49 years were diagnosed with breast cancer, compared with 1174 women aged between 50 and 74 years in the same year. This reflects that older women are at greater risk,” they said.
It recommends women in their 40s and 75 and over talk to their GP “about whether breast screening is right”.
Visit breastscreen.qld.gov.au or call 13 20 50 to find your nearest screening centre.