Two-thirds of Irish women do not do a monthly breast check as recommended by doctors and cancer specialists, according to a survey carried out for the Irish Cancer Society.
The results of the survey of 600 women were published yesterday, the first day of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The society also launched an Action Breast Cancer Freephone Helpline, 1800 309040, which will operate from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday to Friday. It has also issued a laminated shower card, which gives a picture guide to breast examination and guidelines of what to look out for.
The questionnaire, carried out by Irish Marketing Surveys, showed that just one in three women check their breasts on a monthly basis, while 20 per cent check every six months, 15 per cent check once a year or less and 28 per cent do not check at all. The figures also show that 58 per cent of women under 25 never do a breast check.
Speaking in Dublin at the launch of the phoneline, Dr Desmond Carney, a cancer specialist, stressed that cancer "is just an illness. It's not a death penalty. Most people will recover."
He said some 1,700 women in Ireland would be diagnosed with breast cancer this year and close to 600 would die. The number of reported cases was increasing partly because of increased incidence and partly because of more efficient screening. Many more people were recovering than not and with earlier and better detection he had "great optimism for the future".
Journalist and broadcaster Olivia O'Leary said the most horrifying thing about the survey was the fact that more than 50 per cent of young women do not do a breast check.
Statistics indicate that 75 per cent of breast cancers are in the over-50 age group. Ms O'Leary said she grew up in the 1950s at a time when "we were not supposed to have breasts at all". There was an "enormous prudery that still exists for those of us of a certain age" and having been brought up to deny their bodies, women now did not know how to "own them and love them".
The survey shows that women from higher socio-economic backgrounds were more likely to do a breast check. Ms O'Leary said it had been difficult to reach working-class women and she appealed to people's families to encourage women to check.
"Women often won't do it for themselves but they will for their families." She said it was "time to take off the cardigan of ignorance and self-doubt. Don't wait until tomorrow. Do it now."
The chief executive of the Irish Cancer Society, Mr Barry Dempsey, said the phoneline had been operating on a pilot basis since March of this year and provides confidential information and support.
The Minister of State for Health, Ms Mary Hanafin, said the phoneline was one more step in a strategy to deal with breast cancer. "We have to take responsibility for doing the check ourselves," she said.
