Breast cancer screening vehicles blessed by Elders

Two new digital mammography vehicles, blessed in a ceremony at the Musqueam First Nation in Vancouver Feb. 1, will provide breast cancer screening to women in rural and remote areas in British Columbia.

 

Currently, the BC Cancer Agency’s Mobile Mammography program visits 120 remote and rural communities annually, including more than 40 Indigenous communities. 
  

After the blessing, the new digital mammography vehicles will begin providing mammograms for women on site at the Musqueam First Nation. The coaches will then visit communities across the province from Maple Ridge to Merritt, and Osoyoos to the Soda Creek First Nation.
 

These new vehicles join a third coach, which was launched in February last year. That coach is currently serving communities on Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands.
  

The service is the first of its kind in Canada to use wireless cellular data to send the images through a secure VPN tunnel from the mobile unit to the reading centre. Screening mammograms are available for women 40 years of age and older. A doctor’s referral is not needed.
 

The purchase of the vehicles was made possible by Ministry of Health capital funding and support by the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation and Shoppers Drug Mart at a total cost of $1,808,000.
 

Eligible women can use the clinic locator at www.screeningbc.ca/breast to find a year-round fixed location near them, or view the schedule for the mobile mammography service in their area. Assisted travel support is provided for eligible women in remote communities the vehicles can’t get to.
 

“As a breast cancer survivor, I know first-hand that mammograms save lives, said  
 

Johnna Sparrow-Crawford, a breast cancer survivor. “My cancer was found two years ago when the mobile mammography service was visiting my community. I was already two years overdue for my routine mammogram – I kept putting it off because, like many women, I was too busy.”

She said her cancer was found early and it was treated.
 

“These new coaches will make getting a mammogram easier for women,” said Sparrow-Crawford. “They are comfortable and private, and because they travel to rural and remote communities, they are so accessible. If I could tell women in B.C. anything, it would be to take care of your health. Book a mammogram. It can save your life. It saved mine.”
 

In 2015, an estimated 3,400 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in British Columbia, and about 610 will die from the disease. It is the most common type of cancer diagnosed in Canadian women.