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October 08, 2007

Free Breast X-rays for Kildare Women from early October 2007

 

BreastCheck, the National Breast Screening Programme, will provide women in Kildare with free breast x-rays from early October 2007.

The screening service is offered to women aged between 50 and 64 and BreastCheck urges all invited women to attend their appointment. The Government funded service will begin screening at a BreastCheck mobile screening unit in the car park of Dunnes Stores at Newbridge Shopping Centre, Newbridge, Co Kildare from early October 2007.

A BreastCheck x-ray is a simple procedure that takes approximately half an hour and is offered to women aged between 50-64 every two years.

The aim of screening is to detect early breast cancer. The vast majority of women screened are found to be perfectly healthy with less than one per cent diagnosed with cancer.

Mr. Tony O'Brien, Director of BreastCheck, encouraged all women contacted by BreastCheck to attend.

"It is important that women take this valuable opportunity to look after their health. Many women in Kildare have already been contacted and we encourage all invited women to attend their appointment.

 We also encourage women who have previously availed of this service to encourage those who have not yet attended to take advantage of BreastCheck."

Women can find more information, register for BreastCheck, or check that they are on the register at www.breastcheck.ie/ssregister/index.php or by calling freephone 1800 45 45 55.

Last year 79,262 women were invited by BreastCheck for screening and 59,960 women attended their appointments. BreastCheck has reported a consistently high overall acceptance rate of 76.6% of eligible women to the screening programme, in excess of the target acceptance rate of 70%.

The uptake rate for women invited to attend for a second time was 88.8% and uptake among first time invitees to the programme was 72.2% - both in excess of the target of 70%.