UCF prepares for Breast Cancer awareness month

The Ulster Cancer Foundation (UCF) has urged women to be breast aware throughout their adult lives.

The province’s longest-established cancer charity launched the appeal in Belfast today in the run up to Breast Cancer Awareness Month, which is in October.

UCF chief executive Arlene Spiers said that women in their 50s were most at risk from the disease, but she added: “While the incidence of breast cancer rises steeply in women from their mid-30s onwards, some as young as in their 20s will also get the disease.

"It is vital that all women should check their breasts from a much younger age. In most cases lumps will be non-malignant, but in some cases they could be indicators of breast cancer.”

The conference was attended by Belfast City Hospital’s Professor Roy Spence, one of the province’s leading breast cancer surgeons, and Dr Anna Gavin, director of the Northern Ireland Cancer Registry. Along with breast cancer patients at the event were Upper Sixth form girls from two leading Belfast schools, there to hear the message first hand and to lend their support to the campaign.

The incidence of breast cancer in Northern Ireland has risen significantly in recent years to the current figure of around 900-a-year because of increased detection through the National Breast Cancer Screening Programme.

However the number of deaths has decreased because of this increased screening and improved treatments. Survival rates have also improved.

In 1993, the number of deaths was 328, but the most recent figures show a consistent decrease – 1998, 299; 1999, 290; 2000, 281.

Dr Gavin said: “Even though the incidence of breast cancer remains high, the battle against the disease is slowly being won. The number of women living full lives for many years after diagnosis has risen in the last decade due to greater understanding of the causes of the disease and more effective forms of treatment.”

This October will mark the 11th year of the Pink Ribbon appeal, which symbolises Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Launching an appeal for £250,000, Arlene Spiers said the money was needed to enable the UCF to continue funding its research programmes and to expand its care services.

She said: “Breast cancer is an important element in this research work and it is vital that it should continue, so that we can achieve a further decrease in the number of deaths."

(GMcG)